Reliability Estimation of Reciprocating Seals Based on Multivariate Dependence Analysis and It\u27s Experimental Validation

Accurate reliability estimation for reciprocating seals is of great significance due to their wide use in numerous engineering applications. This work proposes a reliability estimation method for reciprocating seals based on multivariate dependence analysis of different performance indicators. Degradation behavior corresponding to each performance indicator is first described by the Wiener process. Dependence among different performance indicators is then captured using D-vine copula, and a weight-based copula selection method is utilized to determine the optimal bivariate copula for each dependence relationship. A two-stage Bayesian method is used to estimate the parameters in the proposed model. Finally, a reciprocating seal degradation test is conducted, and the proposed reliability estimation approach is validated by test data. Results show that the proposed model is accurate and effective in estimating the reliability of reciprocating seals

ADVANCES IN SYSTEM RELIABILITY-BASED DESIGN AND PROGNOSTICS AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT (PHM) FOR SYSTEM RESILIENCE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Failures of engineered systems can lead to significant economic and societal losses. Despite tremendous efforts (e.g., $200 billion annually) denoted to reliability and maintenance, unexpected catastrophic failures still occurs. To minimize the losses, reliability of engineered systems must be ensured throughout their life-cycle amidst uncertain operational condition and manufacturing variability. In most engineered systems, the required system reliability level under adverse events is achieved by adding system redundancies and/or conducting system reliability-based design optimization (RBDO). However, a high level of system redundancy increases a system's life-cycle cost (LCC) and system RBDO cannot ensure the system reliability when unexpected loading/environmental conditions are applied and unexpected system failures are developed. In contrast, a new design paradigm, referred to as resilience-driven system design, can ensure highly reliable system designs under any loading/environmental conditions and system failures while considerably reducing systems' LCC. In order to facilitate the development of formal methodologies for this design paradigm, this research aims at advancing two essential and co-related research areas: Research Thrust 1 - system RBDO and Research Thrust 2 - system prognostics and health management (PHM). In Research Thrust 1, reliability analyses under uncertainty will be carried out in both component and system levels against critical failure mechanisms. In Research Thrust 2, highly accurate and robust PHM systems will be designed for engineered systems with a single or multiple time-scale(s). To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system RBDO and PHM techniques, multiple engineering case studies will be presented and discussed. Following the development of Research Thrusts 1 and 2, Research Thrust 3 - resilience-driven system design will establish a theoretical basis and design framework of engineering resilience in a mathematical and statistical context, where engineering resilience will be formulated in terms of system reliability and restoration and the proposed design framework will be demonstrated with a simplified aircraft control actuator design problem

Degradation Modeling and Remaining Useful Life Estimation: From Statistical Signal Processing to Deep Learning Models

Aging critical infrastructures and valuable machineries together with recent catastrophic incidents such as the collapse of Morandi bridge, or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, call for an urgent quest to design advanced and innovative prognostic solutions, and efficiently incorporate multi-sensor streaming data sources for industrial development. Prognostic health management (PHM) is among the most critical disciplines that employs the advancement of the great interdependency between signal processing and machine learning techniques to form a key enabling technology to cope with maintenance development tasks of complex industrial and safety-critical systems. Recent advancements in predictive analytics have empowered the PHM paradigm to move from the traditional condition-based monitoring solutions and preventive maintenance programs to predictive maintenance to provide an early warning of failure, in several domains ranging from manufacturing and industrial systems to transportation and aerospace. The focus of the PHM is centered on two core dimensions; the first is taking into account the behavior and the evolution over time of a fault once it occurs, while the second one aims at estimating/predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) during which a device can perform its intended function. The first dimension is the degradation that is usually determined by a degradation model derived from measurements of critical parameters of relevance to the system. Developing an accurate model for the degradation process is a primary objective in prognosis and health management. Extensive research has been conducted to develop new theories and methodologies for degradation modeling and to accurately capture the degradation dynamics of a system. However, a unified degradation framework has yet not been developed due to: (i) structural uncertainties in the state dynamics of the system and (ii) the complex nature of the degradation process that is often non-linear and difficult to model statistically. Thus even for a single system, there is no consensus on the best degradation model. In this regard, this thesis tries to bridge this gap by proposing a general model that able to model the true degradation path without having any prior knowledge of the true degradation model of the system. Modeling and analysis of degradation behavior lead us to RUL estimation, which is the second dimension of the PHM and the second part of the thesis. The RUL is the main pillar of preventive maintenance, which is the time a machine is expected to work before requiring repair or replacement. Effective and accurate RUL estimation can avoid catastrophic failures, maximize operational availability, and consequently reduce maintenance costs. The RUL estimation is, therefore, of paramount importance and has gained significant attention for its importance to improve systems health management in complex fields including automotive, nuclear, chemical, and aerospace industries to name but a few. A vast number of researches related to different approaches to the concept of remaining useful life have been proposed, and they can be divided into three broad categories: (i) Physics-based; (ii) Data-driven, and; (iii) Hybrid approaches (multiple-model). Each category has its own limitations and issues, such as, hardly adapt to different prognostic applications, in the first one, and accuracy degradation issues, in the second one, because of the deviation of the learned models from the real behavior of the system. In addition to hardly sustain good generalization. Our thesis belongs to the third category, as it is the most promising category, in particular, the new hybrid models, on basis of two different architectures of deep neural networks, which have great potentials to tackle complex prognostic issues associated with systems with complex and unknown degradation processes

Maintenance optimisation for systems with multi-dimensional degradation and imperfect inspections

In this paper, we develop a maintenance model for systems subjected to multiple correlated degradation processes, where a multivariate stochastic process is used to model the degradation processes, and the covariance matrix is employed to describe the interactions among the processes. The system is considered failed when any of its degradation features hits the pre-specified threshold. Due to the dormancy of degradation-based failures, inspection is implemented to detect the hidden failures. The failed systems are replaced upon inspection. We assume an imperfect inspection, in such a way that a failure can only be detected with a specific probability. Based on the degradation processes, system reliability is evaluated to serve as the foundation, followed by a maintenance model to reduce the economic losses. We provide theoretical boundaries of the cost-optimal inspection intervals, which are then integrated into the optimisation algorithm to relieve the computational burden. Finally, a fatigue crack propagation process is employed as an example to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the developed maintenance policy. Numerical results imply that the inspection inaccuracy contributes significantly to the operating cost and it is suggested that more effort should be paid to improve the inspection accuracy

Advanced methodologies for reliability-based design optimization and structural health prognostics

Failures of engineered systems can lead to significant economic and societal losses. To minimize the losses, reliability must be ensured throughout the system's lifecycle in the presence of manufacturing variability and uncertain operational conditions. Many reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) techniques have been developed to ensure high reliability of engineered system design under manufacturing variability. Schedule-based maintenance, although expensive, has been a popular method to maintain highly reliable engineered systems under uncertain operational conditions. However, so far there is no cost-effective and systematic approach to ensure high reliability of engineered systems throughout their lifecycles while accounting for both the manufacturing variability and uncertain operational conditions. Inspired by an intrinsic ability of systems in ecology, economics, and other fields that is able to proactively adjust their functioning to avoid potential system failures, this dissertation attempts to adaptively manage engineered system reliability during its lifecycle by advancing two essential and co-related research areas: system RBDO and prognostics and health management (PHM). System RBDO ensures high reliability of an engineered system in the early design stage, whereas capitalizing on PHM technology enables the system to proactively avoid failures in its operation stage. Extensive literature reviews in these areas have identified four key research issues: (1) how system failure modes and their interactions can be analyzed in a statistical sense; (2) how limited data for input manufacturing variability can be used for RBDO; (3) how sensor networks can be designed to effectively monitor system health degradation under highly uncertain operational conditions; and (4) how accurate and timely remaining useful lives of systems can be predicted under highly uncertain operational conditions. To properly address these key research issues, this dissertation lays out four research thrusts in the following chapters: Chapter 3 - Complementary Intersection Method for System Reliability Analysis, Chapter 4 - Bayesian Approach to RBDO, Chapter 5 - Sensing Function Design for Structural Health Prognostics, and Chapter 6 - A Generic Framework for Structural Health Prognostics. Multiple engineering case studies are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed RBDO and PHM techniques for ensuring and improving the reliability of engineered systems within their lifecycles

A Comprehensive Review of Digital Twin -- Part 1: Modeling and Twinning Enabling Technologies

As an emerging technology in the era of Industry 4.0, digital twin is gaining unprecedented attention because of its promise to further optimize process design, quality control, health monitoring, decision and policy making, and more, by comprehensively modeling the physical world as a group of interconnected digital models. In a two-part series of papers, we examine the fundamental role of different modeling techniques, twinning enabling technologies, and uncertainty quantification and optimization methods commonly used in digital twins. This first paper presents a thorough literature review of digital twin trends across many disciplines currently pursuing this area of research. Then, digital twin modeling and twinning enabling technologies are further analyzed by classifying them into two main categories: physical-to-virtual, and virtual-to-physical, based on the direction in which data flows. Finally, this paper provides perspectives on the trajectory of digital twin technology over the next decade, and introduces a few emerging areas of research which will likely be of great use in future digital twin research. In part two of this review, the role of uncertainty quantification and optimization are discussed, a battery digital twin is demonstrated, and more perspectives on the future of digital twin are shared