Yukiyasu Shimada

Computer-aided RCM-based plant maintenance management system

In most of the industries, classical reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is employed to decide the maintenance strategies using reliability data without having adequate interaction with the design and operational systems. This means that the RCM process will be conducted with no or limited access to the design and operational data/knowledge. Commonly, the developed maintenance strategies are implemented and managed within the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), which is usually separate from the RCM automated environment. This paper presents the detailed system design and mechanism of improved RCM process as integrated with CMMS. The proposed solution is integrated with design and operational systems and consolidates some successful maintainability approaches to formulate an effective solution for optimized plant maintenance. The major components of the enhanced RCM process are identified and a prototype system is implemented as integrated with the various modules of the adopted CMMS (MAXIMOt). A case study is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed RCM-based CMMS solution in optimizing plant maintenance over the traditional approaches. r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computer-aided operability study

Abstract Operability study is a systematic technique for identifying hazards or operability problems throughout an entire facility. In this paper, we have proposed an approach using knowledge engineering techniques to the automated operability study. The computer-aided operability study system consists of the plant-specific knowledge-base, the generic knowledge-base and the inference engine. Causal relationships between input and output variable deviations for components are modeled using decision tables. Decision tables for components are developed by the user and stored in a generic knowledge-base in computers. The plant structure (piping and instrumentation diagram) and reaction types are inputted to the plant-specific knowledge-base in computers. Each process variable of equipment is examined in sequence by searching the generic knowledge-base, and operability study is generated resulting from the search. We demonstrate via the Solvey process how the computer-aided operability study can identify hazards, and substantiate the usefulness of the method.

Experiment on distributed dynamic simulation for safety design of chemical plants

Abstract To meet the market challenges, chemical plants need to provide safer plant operation. Safety design approach is used to ensure the safety during the design stage, which satisfies the safety during the plant operation. In such approach, simulation practices are widely used to provide quantitative measures to assess the fault propagation and abnormal situations. As most of the chemical plants are becoming more complex, simulation tools need to provide more intelligent and distributed environment to meet the performance requirements. This research work proposes a distributed simulation environment to support safety design activities of complex chemical plants using intelligent agents. The proposed approach is based on dividing the complex plant design model into smaller and controlled sub-processes called control group units (CGUs). The design and simulation activities of each CGU will be carried out independently on a set of computation resources. Intelligent agents are developed to integrate the plant partitions where simulation results are exchanged among the different simulation sessions. The proposed distributed simulation environment is used to assess the fault propagation within each plant segment (i.e. CGU) and between the adjacent CGUs. The proposed solution is used during the design of a case study HDS chemical plant.

Design of plant safety model in plant enterprise engineering environment

Abstract Plant enterprise engineering environment (PEEE) is an approach aiming to manage the plant through its lifecycle. In such environment, safety is considered as the common objective for all activities throughout the plant lifecycle. One approach to achieve plant safety is to embed safety aspects within each function and activity within such environment. One ideal way to enable safety aspects within each automated function is through modeling. This paper proposes a theoretical approach to design plant safety model as integrated with the plant lifecycle model within such environment. Object-oriented modeling approach is used to construct the plant safety model using OO CASE tool on the basis of unified modeling language (UML). Multiple views are defined for plant objects to express static, dynamic, and functional semantics of these objects. Process safety aspects are mapped to each model element and inherited from design to operation stage, as it is naturally embedded within plants objects. By developing and realizing the plant safety model, safer plant operation can be achieved and plant safety can be assured.

IDEF0 Activity Model Based Design Rationale Supporting Environment for Lifecycle Safety

To manage safety through the plant lifecycle in the process industry, the system environment to enable recording and accessing design rationale of the current process and/or plant is indispensable. Originally, structure of process design activity can be formulated, if its design process could be disclosed explicitly. In this study, the design activity of batch process design was considered based on ANSI/ISA S88.01 standard [1], and a design rationale supporting environment with a feature-oriented approach is provided. From the hierarchal nature of process design, IDEF0 activity model is adopted for representing design process, and design rationale representation scheme is defined by considering the relation between process actions, recipe procedures and process structure in batch processes. These relations are represented by objects and associations, and bidirectional search between design intention and process structure via design rational is enabled.

Fuzzy fault diagnostic system based on fault tree analysis

A method is presented for process fault diagnosis using information from fault tree analysis and uncertainty/imprecision of data. Fault tree analysis, which has been used as a method of system reliability/safety analysis, provides a procedure for identifying failures within a process. A fuzzy fault diagnostic system is constructed which uses the fuzzy fault tree analysis to represent a knowledge of the causal relationships in process operation and control system. The proposed method is applied successfully to a nitric acid cooler process plant.<<ETX>>

Computer-aided plant enterprise modeling environment (CAPE-ModE)--design initiatives

The recent research progress in the area of plant design and simulation modeling highlighted the importance of integrating plant design and simulation models with other models within the plant life-cycle. A computer-aided modeling environment is required to overcome the integration complexity among the enterprise models. This paper proposes a design of computer-aided plant enterprise modeling environment called CAPE-ModE. Such modeling environment comprises a central repository, model management system (MMS), translator, and standard application programming interface routines (APIs). The enterprise models are represented in such modeling environment using unified modeling language (UML). Such modeling environment will improve the efficiency of constructing, manipulating, and utilizing the plant life-cycle models.

Plant object-orientated model formalization — case study: HDS plant design

Abstract Towards the realization of plant enterprise engineering environment (PEEE), the construction of the plant model is essential to understand and to manage the plant lifecycle activities. This paper demonstrates a technique to construct a plant model on the basis of object-oriented approach. The plant design model is represented using unified modeling language (UML). The hydrodesulfurization (HDS) plant is used as a case study where the piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) of the HDS plant process has been represented as composed of control group units (CGUs) connected to each other via connection points (CPs). An object-oriented modeling tool is used as a repository to construct the plant model.

Design considerations of computer-aided RCM-based plant maintenance management system

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the designing of computer-aided reliability-centered maintenance (RCM)-based plant for the maintenance of management system. The idea of integrating RCM process with the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is studied, because the maintenance strategies are dynamically changing throughout the plant lifecycle. The integrated solution is discussed in two folds: (1) information, where plant-design model is obtained from the plant-design environment while plant operational information is acquired from the operational systems and (2) process logic where hazard and operability study (HAZOP), failure mode and effects analysis (FMECA), and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) are utilized to analyze and assess all failure types in quantitative manner while combined monte carlo, genetic algorithm, and weibull probability distribution functions (PDF) are employed to optimize the maintenance tasks. The activity and functional models of the enhanced RCM process are developed. Modifications to the different modules of CMMS are proposed.

Retrieval and Reuse of Design Rationale for Supporting Safer Plant Activities

Safety problems of the chemical process plants are discussed at the plant design stage, and are embodied through process hazard analysis (PHA), instrumentation design, design of countermeasures for abnormal situation. There are some scattering results at contents or levels of information considered and some missing record itself, because design rationale (DR), that is design basis such as the design intent, constraints and designer’s thinking process remain implicitly in the memory of some designers and such design information are usually not documented completely. This will entail the problem which other designers, plant operators and maintenance personnel cannot understand the DR by each design result alone. In order to accomplish integrated process safety engineering through plant life cycle, it is necessary to manage effectively safety-related design information including the DR. This paper proposes methods of retrieval of the DR from PHA result and effective reuse of the DR for supporting safer plant life cycle activities.