Online Condition Monitoring: Sensors, Models and Software for a Safe Management of Aged Process Plants

Abstract The paper discusses a software application aiming at the dynamic assessment of the remaining useful life (RUL) of critical equipment in process plants. A number of advanced integrity sensors, including ultrasound thickness (UT) and acoustic emissions (AE) systems, are installed on vessels and pipe throughout the plant. They are able to detect in advance cracks and corrosion and gather continuous data, which feed a simple prognostic model and, in turn, is able to continuously update the information about the expected RUL, in order to support reasonable decisions about equipment life extension as well as inspection scheduling and stops planning. The software exploits an existing platform for communication, database and user interface. The prognosis module uses an easy model, which could be replaced by a more sophisticated algorithm, keeping the other modules.