Sensor development, intelligent data logging, mining and analysis, model updating and statistical methods to predict the performance of aging infrastructures

Sensor development, intelligent data logging, mining and analysis, model updating and statistical methods to predict the performance of aging infrastructures Safety is a crucial issue for operators and regulators in many sectors such as the oil & gas industry, the chemical industry as well as for the transportation infrastructure. Aging and degradation can increase the probability of failures, possibly leading to accidents with severe consequences such as human fatalities, impacts on environment, bad company reputation and business interruption. The expected outcome of this project will be a significant step towards Condition-Based Management which is based on monitoring and forecasting the integrity of structures and is the most effective way to safeguard structural integrity while reducing maintenance costs and maximizing the “up-time” of structures. The predictive risk assessment and management system will provide a real-time identification of degradation states, prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) and dynamic risk-informed ranking of risks, continuously updated based on the predictions of RUL.

A focus of the project is the question, how data fusion and trend analysis techniques using big data can improve the accuracy of predictions and the control of aging risk. This is linked to the integration of these approaches into efficient maintenance management systems.

The benefit of the successful integration of prognostics and health management (PHM) and probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is twofold: on one side, it will provide the risk-informed basis for decision making to prevent accidents and control abnormal events; on the other side, it allows the development of a risk-prioritized predictive maintenance management system that will improve safety while reducing the overall maintenance costs.

The project will analyze how data fusion and trend analysis techniques using big data can improve the accuracy of predictions and the control of aging risk. This is linked to the integration of these approaches into efficient maintenance management systems.