Mechanical Health Assessment Using Combined Inspection and Sensor Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional preventative maintenance and condition monitoring methods for mechanical systems, which rely on discontinuous data, are insufficient to prevent failures in critical systems like pressurized vessels, as they do not provide continuous health assessment, leading to potential catastrophic failures.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that combines discontinuous and continuous system data to generate a comprehensive health index, allowing for real-time assessment and automatic actions to maintain or improve the mechanical system's health, including emergency shutdowns and notifications, by using a combinatory method that applies weights based on confidence indicators.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If discontinuous preventative maintenance and condition monitoring are used, then inspection checklist items can be performed at periodic times, but the monitoring is insufficient to avert failure of the mechanical system
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines discontinuous inspection data with continuous sensor data to create a comprehensive health index. This merging of data sources resolves the contradiction by maintaining the periodic thoroughness of inspections while adding continuous monitoring capability, thereby preventing failure without losing information about system health between inspection intervals.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous health monitoring by continuously updating the health index based on incoming sensor data. This ensures uninterrupted surveillance of mechanical system health, resolving the gap in information between periodic inspections and enabling timely failure prevention.
2Measurement precision
If discontinuous inspection data is used alone, then maintenance can be performed at discrete times, but the health assessment cannot detect failures between inspections
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously feeds sensor data into the health index calculation, providing real-time feedback on mechanical system health. This feedback mechanism enables immediate detection of degradation trends between inspections, improving measurement precision without extending inspection intervals.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous monitoring system performs preliminary detection of potential failures before they occur, allowing maintenance to be scheduled proactively rather than reactively. This reduces the effective loss of time by identifying issues early in their development between scheduled inspections.
3Reliability
If only periodic inspections are performed, then resource usage is reduced, but the system cannot provide real-time health assessment
Solution Approach 1:
The health index serves multiple functions: it integrates discontinuous inspection data, continuously incorporates sensor data, tracks degradation over time, and provides real-time health assessment. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by achieving real-time monitoring without requiring separate specialized systems for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The health index acts as an intermediary that bridges discontinuous inspection data and continuous sensor data. It mediates between these two data sources, combining them into a unified health assessment that provides real-time monitoring capability while maintaining the simplicity of periodic inspection scheduling.
Data Source
AI summary
A method is provided for assessing health of a mechanical system. The method includes receiving discontinuous system data that is obtained intermittently and is associated with health of the system and generating a discontinuous health index that is based on the discontinuous system data and receiving continuous system data that is obtained continuously and is associated with the health of the system and generating a continuous health index that is based on the continuous system data, wherein the discontinuous health index and the continuous health index are configured to be combinable. The method further includes combining the discontinuous health index and the continuous health index, generating an overall health index based on the combination of the discontinuous health index and the continuous health index, and automatically taking one or more actions to maintain or improve health of the mechanical system and/or avoid risk based on the overall health index.