Proceedings of the ASME 2012 31st International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering

OMAE2012
July 1-6, 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

OMAE2012-83248

CHALLENGES IN INSPECTION PLANNING FOR MAINTENANCE OF STATIC

MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT ON AGEING OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION PLANTS:
THE STATE OF THE ART
R.M. Chandima Ratnayake
Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Materials Science, University of Stavanger, N-4036
Stavanger, Norway.

ABSTRACT large financial losses, health & safety issues to personnel as

Although the design life of many of the oil and gas (O&G)
production and process facilities on the Norwegian
Continental Shelf (NCS) has been exceeded, the same physical
assets are still under exploitation as a result of extended life
based on the information gathered by inspection, maintenance,
modification and replacement history. Nevertheless, pressure
systems, which comprised of static mechanical equipment
such as piping components (valves, separators, tanks, vessels,
spools, etc.), undergo continuous inherent deterioration
(fatigue, corrosion, erosion, etc). Often the deterioration rates
vary over the lifetime following no specific pattern due to the
changes in product quality of the well stream, varying
environmental conditions and unexpected cyclical loading.
These necessitate effective inspection planning to repair,
modify or replace those components that reach the end of their
design life. This enables the integrity of the physical assets to
be retained at a tolerable level. The inspection planning has
traditionally been driven by prescriptive industry practices and
carried out by human experts, based on risk-based inspection
(RBI) and risk-based maintenance (RBM) philosophies. The
RBI and RBM involve the planning of inspections on the basis
of the information obtained from risk analyses of a particular
system and related equipment. This manuscript reviews the
evolution of inspection and maintenance practices. Then it
provides a conceptual framework to mechanize the inspection
planning process in order to reduce the effect arising from
human involvement, whilst improving the effective utilization
of data from different sources.
. [4]. These investigations highlight the importance of
1 INTRODUCTION
Oil and gas (O&G) production and process systems
include many types of equipment that often run under rigorous
operating conditions. At the same time, corrosion, erosion,
wear, and ageing-related factors deteriorate the condition of
equipment. This can lead to unexpected failures, resulting in
well as living beings within the proximity, and serious
environmental pollution [1]. These can be mitigated by
improving equipment reliability and system availability. This
can be achieved by performing inspections on the right
equipment in the right location at right time based on the right
information and carrying out the necessary maintenance,
modification or replacement. In general, inspection and
maintenance costs tend to be very high, accounting for
approximately 20–50 percent of the total operating budget of
production and process systems [2]. Therefore, it is vital to
search for cost-effective inspection and maintenance
strategies.
A detailed analysis of 93 major worldwide aviation
accidents, which took place during the period between 1959
and 1983, revealed that inspection and maintenance (I&M)
contributed to 12 percent of them [3]. In 2010, the offshore
drilling rig, the Deepwater Horizon, suffered a major accident
in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, a leading O&G operator
company, BP, was almost brought to bankruptcy, and there
was loss of human lives, high-level environmental degradation
and societal burden to the people living within the proximity.
Aftermath investigations reveal that “the Deepwater Horizon
had never been to dry dock for shore-based repairs in the nine
years since it had been built” and “lack of time in dry dock
may have resulted in a lapse in blowout preventer
certification” [4]. The investigations also reveal that “the
Deepwater Horizon did not go to dry dock because
Transocean insisted on being paid its daily rate during repairs”
encouraging asset owners to invest in cost-effective I&M
strategies to gather data on current condition, understand
degradation processes and responses and carry out necessary
modifications and repairs.
It is vital that I&M management of equipment begins with
“an awareness that ageing is not about how old the equipment

1 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 is, but is about what is known about its condition, and the
factors that influence the onset, evolution and mitigation of its
degradation”. Hence, it is import to store data, information and
records throughout the equipment’s life. The ageing, which is
a process of deterioration “related to the progression of time
and/or the use of the facility and the systems related to the
facility” [5, 6], has the “potential for accumulating and/or
accelerating damage and subsequent loss of integrity” [7]. In
this context, the ‘deterioration’ refers to macroscopic damage
such as dents or gouges, bulging, deformation; general or
localized wall thinning and pitting; material flaws, cracks, and
welding defects and changes in the material microstructure. In
addition, the term ‘inspection’ refers to “the planning,
implementation and evaluation of examinations to determine
the physical and metallurgical condition of equipment or a
structure in terms of fitness-for-service” [8]. “Once the
symptoms of ageing are understood, and detected from
inspection, a decision can be made how to proceed” [8]. The
possible options include putting together a case to justify
continued service (life extension), re-rating, repair, or
scrapping the equipment. In this context, life extension refers
to “the period of extended lifetime of a facility, i.e. the entire
period from end of design life to finishing of
decommissioning” [6].
Downtime has always affected the productive capability of
physical assets by reducing production, increasing operating
costs and interfering with satisfying business stakeholders’
demands [9]. In this context, I&M disciplines face major
challenges in implementing a plant I&M strategy which
maximizes the availability and efficiency of the operating
physical assets, controls the rate of equipment deterioration,
ensures societally safe and environmentally friendly asset
operations, and minimizes the total cost of the overall assets’
Figure 1: Development of maintenance philosophies [11, 12].
2 Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
operations [9]. Hence, in addition to the engineering aspects, it
is important to deal with inspection management issues, as
decisions regarding whether to inspect or not certain
equipment are mostly made by humans. In this context, the
company culture and defined roles and responsibilities play a
major role in managing the condition of equipment. These are
affected by staff demographics, along with skills, training and
competencies [8]. Hence, this manuscript firstly reviews the
evolution of I&M strategies. Then, it highlights some of the
challenges related to inspection management, especially
focusing on inspection planning. Finally, it proposes a general
framework to mechanize the inspection-planning process.
2 EVOLUTION OF INSPECTION AND
MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES
Historically, the main form of maintenance was corrective
maintenance, and later the other strategies have been
developed such as preventive maintenance (PM), total
productive maintenance (TPM), reliability-centered
maintenance (RCM), risk-based maintenance (RBM),
computer-aided maintenance management (CAMM) and
world-class maintenance (WCM). In this scenario, the term
‘inspection’ appeared to surface along with PM practices. The
PM is proven to be effective as it can reduce production
losses, operation costs and the probability of catastrophic
consequences. PM policies, as discussed in detail by Wang
[10], have been widely applied in industries and scheduled by
optimizations of cost, availability and risk. Recently, risk-
based maintenance (RBM) and risk-based inspection (RBI)
philosophies have received increasing attention from
researchers and industrial practitioners. Figure 1 illustrates
how different maintenance practices have evolved over time.
 The RBM strategy has been effectively developed by
Khan’s group and other scholars [13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18]. It has
been applied to the offshore O&G processing facilities for
developing detailed maintenance plans for safe and fault-free
operations [15]. However, the effect of imperfect maintenance
has not been considered in previous works, even though it
would seriously influence the expected equipment reliability
and system risks. Technical skills, maintenance resources and
time are always limited in process industries, leading most
maintenance to be restricted to component repairs of the
failing equipment. For instance, a maintenance action can be
scheduled to block the leaky tubes in a heat exchanger, but it
may not address the erosion of the shell. Therefore, the
equipment is not restored to a ‘‘good as new’’ state and will
deteriorate faster than equipment having had perfect
maintenance or a complete replacement. As a result, it is
necessary to consider imperfect maintenance in the
implementation of an RBM strategy in process industries [1].
An improved RBM approach based on the proportional age
reduction (PAR) model is presented for the scheduling of tasks
in an equipment maintenance plan, for which the criteria
considered are financial risks. An extensive joint probability
density function (PDF) of successive failures and the final
survival is proposed to estimate the parameters of the failure
distribution and maintenance effect. Economic risk criteria are
proposed on the basis of maintenance expenditure. A periodic
and imperfect PM plan for equipment in high-risk subsystems
is established to meet the risk criteria. The case of a reforming
reaction system in a petrochemical plant is studied using the
improved approach [1].
In the early 1990s, the principles of risk-based inspection
(RBI) were formulated for fatigue deterioration [9]. However,
RBI principles have been limited to a few industrial projects
(e.g. the inspection of static process equipment on offshore
production plants), where the risk is used as a criterion to
prioritize inspection tasks for the components in a production
Equipment factor
Inspection factor Health, safety and
Condition factor environmental challenges
Design factor
Damage factor
Process factor
Likelihood
Location vulnerable to
Component
degradation and/or failure
Repair/
replacement
cost
Inspection
Outage
cost
cost
Figure 2: Development of consequence scenario
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
and/or process plant based on RBI strategy. This provides
many advantages, which incorporate: 1) an increase in plant
availability; 2) a decrease in the number of failure
occurrences; 3) a reduction in the level of risk due to failure;
and 4) a reduction in the direct inspection cost of the
production and/or process facility [19]. The complexity of the
approach combined with the required numerical efforts, has
hindered its implementation in an efficient software tool or an
operator company’s plant strategy. Thus, its integration into
the general maintenance integrity management procedures of
the contractors and/or operators of production facilities is not
widespread. On the contrary, once the equipment subsystems
are categorized into a hierarchy based on RBI, the most
popular approach is to use successive inspection results to
estimate the progress of corrosion and recommend (or plan)
future inspections on similar locations in the production
facility. This approach usually assumes linear growth between
inspections [20]. However, the approach faces considerable
challenges due to the inspection uncertainties in interpreting
the inspection results (e.g. radiography films) and errors due to
the calibration of a non-destructive testing (NDT) approach
(e.g. ultrasonic testing) as a result of inherent manufacturing
tolerances etc. [21].
Nearly 80 percent of the total risk in a process system is
caused by 20 percent of equipment [22]. Hence, the total risk
can be reduced effectively by an RBM and RBI strategy,
which prioritizes maintenance activities on the basis of
quantified risk due to equipment failures. The high-risk
equipment is maintained with greater frequency and
thoroughness. There are slight differences in the
implementation of RBM and RBI strategies [13, 16, 17].
Generally, the RBM and RBI strategies include subsystem
identification, risk estimation, risk evaluation, and I&M
planning. Figure 2 illustrates development of a consequence
scenario to implement RBM and RBI strategies.
Plant
System Unit and
proximity
Compensation
cost to injury
3 Copyright © 2012 by ASME
 Essentially, inspection provides the latest information
about the condition of equipment. Depending on the product
quality and process condition, the findings may be better or
worse or the same as previously estimated. However, it is
being performed to reduce the prior uncertainty, and the
findings can change the estimated probability of failure.
Figure 3 indicates the main stages and links that can be present
in an inspection planning process.
Figure 3: Inspection methodology
The RBI involves the planning of an inspection on the
basis of the data and information obtained from a risk analysis
of the equipment, subsystem or system and recorded in a
piping-components inspection data base (PIDB). The risk
analysis is performed to identify the potential degradation
mechanisms and threats to the integrity of the equipment and
to assess the consequences and risks of failure. The inspection
plan is then devised to target the high-risk equipment and
designed to detect potential degradation before fitness-for-
service can be threatened.
4 Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
2.1 Role of Inspection and Maintenance
Inspection: Ageing and Life Extension
As ageing is not only about the age of the equipment, but
also about what is known about changes in its condition over
time, life extension is just a matter of continuing inspection on
the right equipment in the right location at the right time based
on the right data & information and performing necessary
maintenance, modification or replacement. Figure 4 illustrates
the possibility of life extension via performing inspections.
Figure 4: Possibility of life extension via performing
inspections (adapted from [23])
However, in different parts of the world, increasing
amounts of equipment contain hazardous and/or pressurized
fluids that are at risk due to age-related deterioration and
damage (ageing). The owners of ageing production plants are
facing the challenge of optimizing the return on inspection
efforts in a period of time when more production is required
and operating costs have to be minimized. Companies may
wish to operate equipment beyond its original design life or to
repair, reuse or assess fitness-for-service and remnant life but
find it difficult to achieve the right balance between assuring
safety and cost-driven operation. It might be beneficial to
know more about the risks and effects of ageing, recent trends
for asset management and new technologies for maintenance,
inspection, assessment and repair. In addition to considering
technological issues, the softer issues such as management,
people and competence should be addressed to keep
equipment under control [24]. Figure 5 summarizes the
organizational, physical and technological aspects of ageing.
 2.2 Inspection and Maintenance Planning
Methodologies

The challenges pertaining to inspection planning in O&G

production and process facilities have been widely studied in
the past. The methods for planning I&M activities in the
literature differ, both in terms of criteria and mathematical
techniques employed to develop inspection plans. A number
of papers have surveyed I&M planning problem whilst stating
it as a conventional single criterion optimization task, mainly
focusing on production and maintenance cost optimization
[26]. Such single objective methods may not meet the
requirements of utility planners, whose most important task is
the determination of the best compromise solution of the
objectives considered [26, 27].

Regarding the aforementioned limitation, a number of

researches have proposed the multi-objective type of I&M
planning, discussing the solutions obtained by optimization of
Figure 5: Organizational, physical and technological two alternative objective criteria: cost and reliability or cost
aspects of ageing (adapted from [23]) and availability, for instance, Vaurio [28] and Moro et al. [29].
Sergaki and Kalaitzakis [26] argued that these mathematical
Within the O&G industry, inspection planning is programming optimization methods are unsuitable for the non-
performed to assess the safety and reliability of system linear objectives and constraints of maintenance planning
components and to increase the ability of failure situation problems and their computational time grows prohibitively
identification before it actually occurs [25]. Based on the with problem size. In order to overcome these limitations, a
available information on the operational and maintenance number of artificial intelligence approaches have been studied.
history of the system, inspection planners organize and Kim et al. [30] coupled a taboo search (TS) technique with
prioritize I&M activities. The output is a list (an inspection genetic algorithms (GAs)/simulated annealing (SA) hybrid
package) which indicates the selection of the components to methods for maintenance planning. Marseguerra and Zio [31]
be inspected [26]. Figure 6 provides a basic overview of the developed an approach for optimal maintenance and repair
inspection planning loop. strategies of industrial plants under conflicting safety and
economic objectives. The method was based on the coupling
Basis for inspection:
Evaluation of past inspection results and
of a GAs maximization procedure with Monte Carlo
repair history recorded in PIDB techniques. The GAs procedure optimizes the components
Analysis and calculation of optimum
inspection volume, findings rate, etc. maintenance and repair strategies, while the Monte Carlo
techniques allow relevant aspects of plant operation to be
Inputs to plant inspection
Inspection results,
considered, such as stand-by modes, ageing, preventive
strategy and risk based
inspection planning (re-grouping
findings and repairs maintenance, deteriorating repairs, repair teams and
to be carried out
of static mechanical equipment) component repair priorities [26].

According to Ebling [32], factors that affect the

Planning of offshore
Inspection packages
surveys and updates
Figure 6: Inspection planning loop
Essentially, inspection planning begins with the evaluation
of past inspection results and repair history recorded in the
PIDB available to the asset owner. Offshore surveys are
performed to investigate the accessibility of the
location/equipment to be inspected, to check whether the
location/equipment still remains as specified in PM isometric
drawings and to estimate and optimize scaffolding
requirements. Based on new experience, time-to-time plant
inspection strategy is revised.
availability of repairable systems include equipment (type,
age, number of components, arrangement of components and
inherent defects in components); operating conditions (level of
skill and number of operating personnel, working habits, inter-
personnel relationships, absenteeism, safety measures,
environmental conditions, severity of tasks assigned, shock
loading − accidental or otherwise); I&M conditions
(competence and strength of personnel, attendance, working
habits, defects introduced by previous maintenance actions,
effectiveness of inspection planning and control); and infra-
structural facilities (spare-parts, consumables, common and
special tools). Nevertheless, in planning I&M operations, the
component criticality classification involves multiple criteria

5 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 frequently expressed in subjective and vague terms, instead of
numeric values [26]. Therefore, utilizing the analytical models
alone may be too complex for analyzing the interplay of the
many different factors affecting I&M planning. Conventional
methods may not be able to model the problem effectively and
efficiently. Modern approaches, such as artificial neural
networks (ANNs) and fuzzy logic, are more promising in this
respect; see Ricotti and Zio [33].
ANNs are effective and reliable algorithms capable of
performing functional input/output mappings [34]. Their
parallel, multi-parametric character and computing speed
make them a powerful computational tool, especially when the
underlying physical-mathematical models are complicated
[33]. In summary, ANNs could be applied to estimated
sampled functions when the form of the function is not
available [35]. Lopes and Ebecken [36] presented a
methodology for fatigue monitoring of fixed offshore
structures using ANNs. Rajpal et al. [34] applied ANNs for
the modeling of reliability, availability and maintainability
(RAM) of repairable systems. They used the past data of a
helicopter transportation facility to train the model. Luxhoz
and Shyur [37] proposed a back propagation neural network
for assessing the reliability of ageing components.
As mentioned above, inspection planning also deals with
subjective and vague terms as input parameters. The fuzzy
logic approach is an attractive option when (a) the available
data is not precise enough to allow conventional methods of
computing; (b) the development of a simple and robust model
is not possible due to significant tolerance to the imprecision;
(c) the available information is too incomplete to allow the
development of a proper model; and (d) the model is too
difficult to allow easy computation [38]. Singh and Markeset
[38] proposed a methodology, based on a fuzzy logic
framework, for the establishment of a risk-based inspection
planning of oil and gas pipes. In this technique, the plant
operating parameters (temperature, gas and liquid flow rates,
total pressure, CO2 partial pressure and pH) are taken as fuzzy
variables and used to calculate the predicted rate of corrosion.
Sergaki and Kalaitzakis [25] demonstrated the use of a fuzzy
relational database model for manipulating the data required
for the criticality component ranking in thermal power
systems’ inspection planning.
The application of Petri nets (PN) to reliability engineering
has been limited, but a few examples can be found for
reliability evaluation [39], fault-tolerant analysis [40], safety
analysis [41] and reliability growth [42]. Knezevic and Odoom
[43] proposed an approach for determining the reliability of a
repairable technical system making use of PN and fuzzy
Lambda-Tau methodology. The proposed methodology
involves qualitative modeling using PN and quantitative
analysis using the Lambda-Tau method of solution with the
basic events represented by fuzzy numbers of triangular
6 Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
membership function. Sachdeva and Kumar [44] presented a
framework for determining the optimum preventive
maintenance (PM) schedules through interfacing of the genetic
algorithm with the Simulink toolbox of the Matlab. After
getting a solution, Stochastic Petri nets (SPN) were used to
model the system and find out the effect of optimized
maintenance schedules on system performance. In summary,
the use of fuzzy arithmetic in the PN model increases the
flexibility for application to various systems and conditions. In
addition, it allows the use of fewer data, if data is scarce, or
the use of a wide range of data from many sources as is
possible for the systems being studied [39].
Nowadays, risk-based approaches in inspection,
maintenance and plant/asset management are in a well-
advanced stage of application and constitute a well-established
part of modern practice. RBI technology has its origins in the
early 1970s, when quantitative inspection models were
considered for the first time for updating the probabilistic
deterioration models by means of Bayes’ rule [45]. During the
last two decades, reliability-based and risk-based approaches
have been developed for inspection planning [46]. These
approaches are based on the Bayesian decision theory to
minimize overall service life costs including direct and
implied costs of failures, repairs, and inspections. In the early
1990s, the first applications of RBI were reported [47, 48].
Additional efforts have been directed toward verification of
the probabilistic models through the analysis of in-service
experiences [49]. Figure 7 illustrates key decisions and
follow-up services related to in-service inspections.
Due to the great deal of effort required for the probability
calculations, the application of the RBI was limited to
relatively few industrial projects in the past. This drawback
has recently been overcome by the quantitative approaches to
RBI, as proposed in American Petroleum Institute (API)
documents [50]. These developments greatly increase the
computational efficiency in a consistent manner.
The effectiveness of maintenance management depends
significantly on the proper deployment of resources in the
form of spare parts and other maintenance materials,
manpower, necessary tools and instruments, and ultimately
life cycle profit for an organization [51]. However, since
organizational resources are limited and scarce, prioritizing
equipment for assigning resources is essential. Some studies
have been performed based on artificial intelligence
techniques, mainly expert systems, neural networks, fuzzy
logics and model-based systems, to strengthen the robustness
of maintenance management [52]. These studies have used
fuzzy rules to interpret linguistic variables for the
determination of maintenance priorities and budget planning.
 Strategy
Services

Figure 7: In-service inspections: Key decisions and follow-up services

The I&M of O&G production and process facilities is
carried out by experts who have considerable experience and
are able to bring a large body of knowledge, to solving a
variety of problems. However, the frequent job changing of
personnel appointed for inspection planning causes problems
in transferring knowledge and experience. Ahmad et al. [53]
developed a knowledge-based expert system for acquisition of
experiential knowledge, rule extraction from expert opinion
and representation of the knowledge for solving problems. The
output of their system provides the documentation of informal
and qualitative knowledge together with a prototype expert
system for eliciting details of defects in structures, empirically
assessing the severity of the defect and recommending a series
of remedial actions.
3 INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGE
Many of the production facilities on the Norwegian
Continental Shelf (NCS) have exceeded their design life.
Static mechanical equipment, such as valves, separators, tanks,
vessels, pipelines, etc., have undergone inherent degradation
due to ageing, corrosion, erosion, etc. Often the degradation
rates vary over the lifetime due to changes in the produced
O&G well stream (e.g. changes in CO2, H2S, water, and sand
content). The operators have databases containing historical
data about corrosion and erosion, wall thickness reduction,
current status of sand production and quality of the product,
etc. This data together with expert knowledge has been used to
identify the critical locations of a particular production plant
and to develop and update plant maintenance and inspection
strategies. However, inspection planning is challenging due to
the uncertainties present in human involvement as well as the
cumbersome decision processes. In this context, ineffective
inspection planning could lead to undiscovered degradation,
which may cause catastrophic failure with fatalities.
Essentially, inspections are recommended based on historical
data, engineering judgments and current well stream content
(e.g. amount of sand, water, CO2, and H2S). For example, it is
well known that there is a high possibility of: corrosion in
dead-legs and blind flanges along piping due to the standstill
product; erosion due to sand particles in the pipeline sections
just after the choke valves; etc. The degradation is measured
based on the remaining wall thickness; the wall thickness
degradation acceptance criteria and recommendations are
found in, for example, ASME B31.3. When the remaining
wall thickness reaches Tmin3 (see Figure 8), the technical
condition is assumed to be virtually zero (see Figure 8).

7 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 Figure 8: Degradation in flowline components in the form of wall thickness reduction [27]
The wall thicknesses of static mechanical equipment is
measured during inspections using Non-Destructive Testing
(NDT) methods such as radiography, ultrasonic testing, pulsed
eddy current, etc. However, in ageing platforms, where the
design life has passed and the production is fast reducing, it is
a challenge to uphold the performance and technical integrity
of the facility whilst reducing the costs. The following
includes some of the challenges pertaining to ageing
production and process facilities.
• The preventive maintenance (PM) shutdown periods
are very limited due to tight production schedules and
budgetary restrictions. Hence, it is not possible to carry out
many inspections within the available shutdown time.
• There is a high number of pieces of static mechanical
equipment that have not been inspected since the date of
installation.
• Often we find that the measured wall thickness data is
not reliable due to poor interpretation of NDT results.
• Personnel appointed for inspection planning frequently
change jobs, which results in new personnel taking over the
inspection planning. This makes the problem more
complicated due to problems in transferring knowledge and
experience.
• The quality of the inspection programs made by a
newly recruited inspection planner is relatively lower (due to
less experience and familiarity about the inspection process)
than that of the inspection planner who has relatively high
experience (i.e. the variation of quality from one inspection
program to the other needs to be mitigated).
• The views of personnel experienced in carrying out
inspection programs also seem to be narrow. This could be
due to the lack of an holistic overview about the problem
situation and a tendency to depend on current findings instead
of making real engineering judgments.
• Based on the time, mood and/or state of mind of the
person who is carrying out inspection planning, the extent of
the usage of engineering judgment and knowledge can be
limited.
8 Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
• Wastage of money occurs at the planning stage as some
planned locations and/or equipment are not being
implemented during PM shutdown.
In general in the North Sea, the influence of the
engineering function has declined to a worrying level, and the
technical authorities are under pressure, often reacting to
immediate operational problems rather than taking a strategic
role to provide expertise and judgment on key operational
engineering issues [54]. Hence, it is vital to mechanize the
inspection-planning process to maintain a constant quality
level over all the inspection packages, to meet immediate
operational problems and systematically incorporate the
locations/equipment that are not inspected during a stipulated
time period. Although several modeling methods and
algorithms have been proposed for use in inspection planning,
no method is suitable to face all the challenges specified
above. Hence, in order meet those challenges, it is paramount
to mechanize the inspection-planning process. This would
enable all the locations/equipment for inspection to be
systematically dealt with and would maintain a constant
quality level in inspection programs over the time period.
Figure 9 illustrates a framework to incorporate the socio-
technical aspects of I&M related activities.
The data available in the PIDB provides information about
past inspection frequency, current wall thickness, inspection
method, findings, etc. Having a reliable and robust approach
for establishing I&M plans is vital for maintenance engineers
to cut down on the expenditures arising from frequent
inspections (which might not be necessary), rejection of
recommended inspections and unnecessary maintenance
shutdowns; and to take effective PM actions before an
accident actually takes place. Hence, it is vital to have a
technique that can incorporate the subjective knowledge along
with the objective information to develop a practical model
which is simple to use, flexible enough to be modified
according to the requirements of different sections of the
plant, and able to incorporate field data. Figure 10 illustrates a
detailed version of a practical model (retrieved from Figure 9)
that can be used to mechanize inspection planning.
 Figure 9: A framework: Socio-technical aspects of inspection and maintenance

Inspection of static process equipments

In this model, essentially inputs would be the location of
Human planner/ supervisor
static mechanical equipment. Before making a (controller)
recommendation, an average inspection planner must consider
Model of Model of
all the factors connected with location. These include the flow process mechanization
properties (e.g. turbulences); fabricated material properties
(e.g. carbon steel or stainless steel); connection material
properties (i.e. checking for bimetallic corrosion); the
Mechanized
orientation (e.g. blind flange, dead-legs, etc.); and the current inspection planning
status of erosion levels (available in the asset owner’s data
Model of Model of
bases). In this model, together with all these considerations, process interfaces
the degree of difficulty involved in performing inspections in
terms of disturbances would be modeled to support and guide PIDB/ Inspection
the human planner in making inspection recommendations. PIDB
programs

The outputs would be inspection recommendations for Static process

equipment (physical
effective investigations. The disturbances includes lack of process) condition
correct information in the PM isometric drawings and piping Outputs Inputs
control
instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), PM shut down period, lack
of accessibility, etc. Figure 11 illustrates different factors that
Disturbances
can interact and should be incorporated into the mechanization
of the inspection-planning process. Figure 10: A practical model: Mechanization of
inspection planning

9 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 Figure 11: Items interacting with inspection planning mechanization process
The mechanization of inspection planning would reduce
the ad hoc planning techniques currently used in I&M
engineering disciplines.
4 CONCLUSIONS
An effective use of resources can be achieved by using
effective inspection decisions to guide where and when to
perform inspection, maintenance, modification or repair.
Based on a literature review, this paper underlines the state-of-
the-art of inspection for the maintenance of static mechanical
equipment on ageing assets. The inspection methodologies
are identified and grouped based on applications, input data
and output data. The review of identified methodologies
indicates that there is no unique way to perform inspection
planning and implementation. The application of these
methodologies highly depends on the depth on the analysis,
area of application and quality of results. Other than this, the
experience of analysts in using these methodologies is also an
important factor to consider.
The proposed approach addresses some of the inherent
drawbacks present in the inspection analysis and planning
approaches such as uncertainty, performing sensitivity
analysis, reducing the possibility of missing information and
data when making inspection recommendations, etc. Any
decision based on non-effective data incorporation may
generate non-essential maintenance efforts. These
10
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
misinterpretations will result in the failure to reduce or
eliminate significant sources of risk. The suggested method
would also help inspection analyses and evaluations to be
performed in a well-planned manner, avoiding maintenance
effort being spent in less important areas and ensuring it is
spent in highly important areas. In the main, the mechanized
approach suggested in this manuscript would help reduce the
cumbersome and repetitive work that is currently performed
by inspection planners.
5 REFERENCES
[1] Hu, H., Cheng, G., Yun, Li., Tang, Y., (2009), ‘Risk-
based maintenance strategy and its applications in a
petrochemical reforming reaction system’, Journal of
Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 22(4), 392-
397.
[2] Tan, J.S. and Kramer, M.A., (1997), ‘A general
framework for preventive maintenance optimization
in chemical process operations’, Computers and
Chemical Engineering, 21(12), 1451-1469.
[3] CAP 718, (2002), ‘Human factors in aircraft
maintenance and inspection’, Civil Aviation
Authority, ISBN 0860398366,
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/109/CAP718%20
Copyright © 2012 by ASME
 (digest%2012%20-%20maintenance).pdf (accessed [14] Khan, F.I., and Haddara, M.M., (2003), ‘Risk-based
on 28.12.2011). maintenance (RBM): A quantitative approach for
[4] Chief Counsels Report, (2011), ‘Chapter 4.10: maintenance/inspection scheduling and planning’,
Maintenance’, 221-224. http://www.oilspill Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries,
commission.gov/ chief-counsels-report (accessed on 16(6), 561–573.
18.07.2011). [15] Khan, F.I., and Haddara, M., (2004), ‘Risk-based
[5] OLF, (2009), ‘Life extension of facilities: Issues to be maintenance (RBM): a newapproach for process
addressed in the areas of risk management, technical plant inspection and maintenance’, Process Safety
safety systems and working environment’, OLF Progress, 23(4), 252–265.
Supporting Document No. 5, 1(1), [16] Khan, F. I., and Haddara, M. R., (2004), ‘Risk-based
http://www.olf.no/PageFiles/574/5%20090701%20R maintenance of ethylene oxide production facilities’,
M,% 20TSS% 20and% 20WE.pdf (accessed on Journal of Hazardous Materials, 108(3), 147–159.
25.12.2011). [17] Krishnasamy, L., Khan, F., and Haddara, M., (2005),
[6] Håbrekke, S., (2010), ‘Ageing and life extension for ‘Development of a risk-based maintenance (RBM)
offshore facilities − in general and for specific strategy for a power-generating plant’, Journal of
systems’, http://www.ptil.no/news/presentations- Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 18(1), 69–
from-seminars-on-ageing-and-lifetime-extension- 81.
article6798-79.html (accessed on 25.12.2011). [18] Apeland, S., and Aven, T., (2006), ‘Risk based
[7] Stacey, A., (2010), ‘Structural integrity management maintenance optimization: Foundational issues’,
of ageing offshore installations’, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 67(3),
http://www.ptil.no/news/presentations-from- 285–292.
seminars-on-ageing-and-lifetime-extension - article6 [19] Khan, F.I., Haddara, M.M., and Bhattacharya, S.K.,
798-79 .html (accessed on 25.12.2011). (2006), ‘Risk-based integrity and inspection
[8] Wintle, J., Moore, P., Henry, N., Smalley, S., and modeling (RBIIM) of process components/system’,
Amphlett, G., (2006), ‘Plant ageing: Management of Risk Analysis, 26(1), 203-221.
equipment containing hazardous fluids or pressure’, [20] Salma, M.M., (2008), ‘Managing ILI inspection
http://www.hse.gov.uk/ research/rrpdf/ rr509.pdf, uncertainties: A second probabilistic approach helps
(accessed on 25.12.2011). operators avoid undue conservatism in integrity
[9] Ratnayake, R.M.C., and Markeset, T., (2011), decision’, http://www.pipelineandgastechnology.
‘Maintenance integrity: Managing flange inspections com/Integrity/PiggingUpdate/item32714.php
on aging offshore production facilities’, Proceedings (accessed on 12.12.2011)
of the ASME 30th International Conference on [21] Rauschenbach, H., Clossen, M., Opheys, M., and
Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, ISBN: 978- Siegel, M., (2008), ‘Advanced NDE inspection
0-7918-4435-9, doi:10.1115/OMAE2011-49050, methods for detection of SCC in blade attachments
Paper no. OMAE2011-49050, 19-32. and blade roots’, Proceedings of 17th World
[10] Wang, H., (2002), ‘ A survey of maintenance policies Conference on Nondestructive Testing, 25-28, Oct.,
of deteriorating systems’, European Journal of Shanghai, China.
Operational Research, 139(3), 469-489 [22] API, (2000), ‘API 581: Base resource document −
[11] Moubray, J.M., (1994), ‘Reliability-centred Risk -based inspection’ (1st ed.). Washington, DC:
maintenance’, Oxford: Butterworth/ Heinemann. American Petroleum Institute.
[12] Cooke, F.L., (2003), ‘Plant maintenance strategy: [23] Ptil, (2010), ‘Ageing and life extension’,
evidence from four British manufacturing firms’, http://www.ptil.no/news/presentations-from-
Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 9(3), seminars-on-ageing-and-lifetime-extension-
239–249. article6798-79.html (accessed on 25.12.2011).
[13] Arunraj, N.S., and Maiti, J., (2007), ‘Risk-based [24] Ratnayake, R.M.C., (2011), ‘A decision model for
maintenance-techniques and applications’, Journal of executing plant strategy: Maintaining the technical
Hazardous Materials, 142(3), 653–661. integrity of petroleum flowlines’, International

11 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use

 Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management,
xx(xx), xx. (Accepted for Publication).
[25] Sergaki, A., and Kalaitzakis, K., (2002), ‘A fuzzy
knowledge based method for maintenance planning
in a power system’, Reliability Engineering and
System Safety, 77, 19-30.
[26] Karlj, B., and Petrovic, R., (1998), ‘Optimal
preventive maintenance scheduling of thermal
generating units in power systems − A survey of
problem formulations and solution methods,
European Journal of Operational Research, 35(1), 1-
15.
[27] Ratnayake, R.M.C., and Markeset, T., (2010),
‘Maintaining technical integrity of petroleum
flowlines on offshore installations: A decision
support system for inspection planning’, Proceedings
of the ASME 2010 29th International Conference on
Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering,
OMAE2010-20035. . org/getabs/servlet/
GetabsServlet?prog= normal& id=
ASMECP002010049149000001000001&idtype=cvip
s&gifs=yes&ref=no (accessed on 12.12.2011)
[28] Vaurio, J., (1995), ‘Optimization of test and
maintenance intervals based on risk and cost’,
Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 49(1), 23-
36.
[29] Moro, L., and Ramos, A., (1999), ‘Goal
programming approach to maintenance scheduling of
generating units in large scale power systems’, IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems, 14(3), 1021-1028.
[30] Kim, H., Hayashi, Y., Nara, K., (1997), ‘An
algorithm for thermal unit maintenance scheduling
through combined GA, SA and TS’, IEEE
Transactions on Power Systems, 12(1), 329-335.
[31] Marseguerra, M., and Zio, E., (2000), ‘Optimizing
maintenance and repair policies via a combination of
genetic algorithms and Monte Carlo simulation’,
Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 68(1), 69-
83.
[32] Ebling, C.E., (1997), ‘An introduction to reliability
and maintainability engineering’, New Delhi: Tata
McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited.
[33] Ricotti, M.E., and Zio, E., (1999), ‘Neural network
approach to sensitivity and uncertainty analysis’,
Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 64(1), 59–
71.
12
Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use
[34] Rajpal, P.S., Shishodia, K.S., and Sekhon, G.S.,
(2006), ‘An artificial neural network for modeling
reliability, availability and maintainability of a
repairable system’, Reliability Engineering and
System Safety, 91, 809-819.
[35] Hornik, K., Stinchcombe, M., and White, H., (1989),
‘Multilayer feed forward networks are universal
approximators’, Neural Networks, 2, 359-366.
[36] Piedras, T.A., and Ebecken, N.F., (1997), ‘In-time
fatigue monitoring using neural networks’, Marine
Structures, 10, 363-387.
[37] Luxhoj, J.T., and Syur, H.J., (1995), ‘Reliability
curve fitting for aging helicopter components’,
Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 48, 229–
234.
[38] Singh, M., and Markeset, T., (2009), ‘A methodology
for risk-based inspection planning of oil and gas
pipes based on fuzzy logic framework’, Engineering
Failure Analysis, 16, 2098-2113.
[39] Kumar, V., and Aggarwal, K.K., (1993), ‘Petri net
modeling and reliability evaluation of distributed
processing systems’, Reliability Engineering and
System Safety, 41, 167-176.
[40] Viswanadham, N., (1987), ‘Reliability of computer
and control system’, New York: Elsevier.
[41] Leveson, N.G., and Stozly, J.L., (1987), ‘Safety
analysis using Petri nets’, IEEE Transactions on
Software Engineering, SE-13(3), 386-397.
[42] Shabalian, A.N., (1992), ‘Generation of models for
reliability growth’, Proceedings of the Reliability and
Maintenance Symposium, New York: IEEE Press,
299-302.
[43] Knezevic, J., and Odoom, E.R., (2001), ‘Reliability
modeling of repairable systems using petri nets and
fuzzy Lambda-Tau methodology’, Reliability
Engineering and System Safety, 73(1), 1-17.
[44] Sachdeva, A., Kumar, D., and Kumar, P., (2008),
‘Planning and optimizing the maintenance of paper
production systems in a paper plant’, Computers &
Industrial Engineering, 55, 817–829.
[45] Straub, D., and Faber, M.H., (2005), ‘Risk based
inspection planning for structural systems’, Structural
Safety, 27(4), 335-355.
[46] Thoft-Christensen, P., and Sørensen, J. D., (1987),
‘Optimal strategy for inspection and repair of
structural systems’, Civil Engineering Systems, 4(2),
94-100.
Copyright © 2012 by ASME
 [47] Aker Engineering, (1990), ‘Probabilistic in-service
inspection planning’, Internal Report, Rev. 1.1.
[48] Pedersen, C., Nielsen, J.A., Riber, J.P., Madsen,
H.O., and Krenk, S., (1992), ‘Reliability based
inspection planning for the Tyra field’, ASME J.
Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng., 2, 255–263.
[49] HSE, (1999), ‘Validation of inspection planning
methods: summary report’, Offshore Technology
Report #059, Health & Safety Executive, UK
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/otopdf/1999/oto 990
59.pdf, (accessed on 25.12.2011).
[50] API, (2008), ‘Risk Based Inspection Technology’,
Recommended Practice − 581, (2nd ed.). Washington,
DC: American Petroleum Institute.
[51] Sherwin, D., (2000), ‘A review of overall models for
maintenance management’, Journal of Quality in
Maintenance Engineering, 6(3), 138–164.
[52] Khanlari, A., Mohammadi, K., and Sohrabi, B.,
(2008), ‘Prioritizing equipments for preventive
maintenance (PM) activities using fuzzy rules’,
Computers & Industrial Engineering, 54, 169–184.
[53] Ahmad, K., Langdon, A., and Frieze, P.A., (1991),
‘An expert system for offshore structure inspection
and maintenance’, Computer and Structures, 40, 143-
159.
[54] KP3, (2007), ‘Key Programme 3: Asset Integrity
Programme’, A report by the Offshore Division of
HSE’s Hazardous Installations Directorate,
http://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/ kp3.pdf (accessed
on 15.12.2011).

13 Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 02/19/2016 Terms of Use: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/terms-of-use