Plant maintenance with predictive diagnostics

• US 5,311,562 A
• Filed: 12/01/1992
• Issued: 05/10/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Brookfield Asset Management Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Brookfield Asset Management Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bond, Charles B., Palusamy, Sam S., Kozlosky, Thomas A., Batt, Theodore J., Cranford, Elwyn L. III, Bauman, Douglas A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Walsh, Donald P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): VOSS, FREDERICK
• Application Number:
  US07/983,935
• Time in Patent Office: 525 Days
• Field of Search: 376/215, 376/216
• US Class Current: 376/215
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G21C 17/00 Monitoring; Testing measuring in general G01; Maintaining
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 30/30 Nuclear fission reactors

Abstract

An integrated information system is provided for a plant with interactive processes running in functional equipment subsets, such as a nuclear power generation plant. Sensors are operatively coupled to monitor processes and equipment in the plant, collecting sample data for assessing operational conditions and for predicting maintenance requirements based on loading of the equipment. One or more processors access the sample data and compares present conditions to diagnostic specifications, technical specifications and historical data stored in memory and indexed to equipment subsets and functional operating groups. The processor(s) generate prioritized reports to alert users to potential operational and/or maintenance problems. In addition to the prioritized reports, the processor accesses and outputs to the users reports of the diagnostic and technical specifications applicable to the process parameters exhibiting the potential problems. These specifications are provided in successive levels of detail and are cross referenced between related processes and related items of equipment. The information system integrates operations, maintenance, engineering and management interests in a common database of information via network-coupled data terminals.

Claims

1. An integrated information system for a plant, the plant having a plurality of equipment units operating interactively in functional equipment subsets according to variable operational parameters, said equipment units being controllable for varying the operational parameters, and the operational parameters of at least some of the equipment subsets affecting loading of others of the equipment subsets, the information system comprising:

a plurality of sensors operatively coupled to the equipment units and sensing values of the operational parameters for assessing a condition of the equipment subsets;

sampling means coupled to the sensors, for collecting and generating at least one of sample values of the operational parameters and information including results of numerical operations on the sample values, and a memory means for storage thereof;

an operational control system coupled to at least one of the sampling means and the memory means, the operational control system being attended by an operator for adjusting the operational parameters during plant operation, the operational control system including diagnostic means for assessing plant operation based on the operational parameters and reporting on plant operation to the operator to enable choices for control of the equipment subsets to vary the operational parameters;

a maintenance monitoring system coupled to at least one of the sampling means and the memory means, the maintenance monitoring system being operable for accumulating a usage factor for a plurality of the equipment units and reporting maintenance requirements of the equipment units to maintenance personnel to enable choices for maintenance operations;

data communications means coupling the operational control system and the maintenance monitoring system for bidirectional communications and sharing of data;

wherein the memory means includes a data memory accessible over the data communications means to both said operational control system and said maintenance monitoring system, the data memory including diagnostic specifications for the operational parameters and technical specifications for the equipment subsets;

the diagnostic means assessing said plant operation as a function of the operational parameters and as a function of the usage factor, diagnostic specifications and technical specifications; and

,

the maintenance monitoring system reporting on the maintenance requirements of the equipment units as a function of the operational parameters and as a function of the usage factor, diagnostic specifications and technical specifications, and wherein data defining the operational parameters, the usage factor, the diagnostic specifications and the technical specifications are shared commonly between the operational control system and the maintenance monitoring system over the data communications means.

2. The integrated information system according to claim 1, wherein the plant is a nuclear power plant, and further comprising an automatic control system responsive to the operational control system.

3. The integrated information system according to claim 2, wherein the data communication means includes a remote communication capability.

4. The integrated information system according to claim 2, further comprising at least one engineering analysis system coupled over the data communication means, the engineering analysis system also accessing the data defining the operational parameters, the usage factor, the diagnostic specifications and the technical specifications, said data being shared commonly among the operational control system, the maintenance monitoring system and the engineering analysis system.

5. The integrated information system according to claim 4, wherein the sampling means comprises a plurality of data processing units coupled to at least one information bus, and wherein data from the information bus is coupled to the operational control system and the maintenance monitoring system.

6. The integrated information system according to claim 5, wherein a plurality of the sensors measure safety parameters and are coupled to the operational control system over a separate bus, and further comprising a bridge connection for data transfer between the information bus and the separate bus.

7. The integrated information system according to claim 6, wherein the information bus comprises a plurality of data paths accessible to the operational control system and the maintenance monitoring system, said data paths being arranged in a hierarchy, and further comprising a plurality of data analysis units coupled between the data paths for reducing data collected by the sensors.