Condition Monitoring: Engineering the Practice

Conditon Monitoring (CM) is a broad-based technique for managing aspects of plant, components, transport vehicles, offshore installations, process equipment and other engineering. This title contains a collection of papers that are based on presentations given at a symposium held on 21st November 2000, organized by the Tribology Group Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. It provides the reader with an overview of CM that ranges from the position that it occupies in the wider context of maintenance, through techniques, the science behind them and practical experience across a range of engineering sectors, to mathematical models to determine the cost-effectivess of CM and to avoid condition-based maintenance decision making. Starting with breakdown maintenance, the text discusses how CM fits in the overall maintenances function and looks at why problems remain hidden. It lists the techniques available and looks at a systems engineering approach to determine whether CM is appropriate to particular items of machinery. The text then reviews the five basic techniques, and illustrates them using examples as to why they are useful, what they tell us and about the science behind them. The use of CM in aircraft fleets and lubricant analysis in offshore applications is discussed with particular reference to safety. CM is also described with relation to power generation, showing how CM has helped the industry to cope with the changes to plant utilization caused by privatization. A mathematical model, which is designed to evaluate the likely economic benefits of using CM, is developed from sample data from existing plants. CM experience in the pharmaceutcial industry is described, discussing the function of the plant and how critical process control is to the satisfactory production of the end product. An analysis of the cost-effectiveness of CM is given. The final chapter focuses on the decision aspect of CM and comments that CM usually results in a plant being taken out of service while there is still life left in it. It introduces a model using the concept of conditional residual time and discusses a software package that has been developed to aid condition-based maintance decision making. This title brings together a range of engineering techniques that including diagnostic, testing, analytical and preventative methods. These combine to offer a tool for those working a range of different engineering settings.

Table of Contents:
The role of condition monitoring in the context of the maintenance function - what techniques are avalible, P. Wilmott; the principles behind condition monitoring techniques, M. Neale; condition monitoring - the support of aircraft fleets, R.W. Chapman, D.J. Hodges and T.J. Nowell; using lubricant analysis to manage safety in an offshore application, D. Shorten; condition monitoring in the field of power generation, P. Donnellan; condition monitoring experience in the pharmaceutical industry and an econometric model, B.S. Rajan; modelling condition-based maintenance decision support, W. Wang and J. Sharp.