Compressor bearing high temperature
Learn how a timely alert from Shape Lighthouse helped prevent major damage to critical equipment on an FPSO. Discover the full story behind the quick decision to switch compressors and avoid costly repairs.
Plant:
Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)​
Equipment:
Multi Stage Centrifugal Compressor
Description:
The client has 114 large centrifugal compressors being monitored by Shape Lighthouse in multiple plants supporting its centralized condition-based monitoring strategy. On 20th July, 07:00h, Shape Lighthouse alarmed called user attention to two simultaneous failure modes in one compressor, indicating a potential increase in bearing temperature and an internal leakage in the lubrication system. Less than 3 hours after the alarm, Shape Lighthouse motivated the decision to stop the compressor and change to the standby one. Further investigation identified that the lubrication oil heat exchanger was leaking cooling water into the oil system, which could cause severe damage to equipment internals leading to elevated maintenance costs if the situation persists for a couple more hours.
Event summary:
How does Shape Lighthouse detect the issue?
On 20th July, 07:00h, two failure mode detection algorithms were raised in Shape Lighthouse alarm management, pointing out an increase in bearing temperature and an internal leakage in the lubrication system (lubrication oil level increasing) of the compressor.​
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Both failure mode detection algorithms were developed based on the Shape large assets time-series database and trained for this particular asset, to reduce the false alarms ratio.
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​​A consequence of no Shape Lighthouse detection:
As the increase in bearing temperature values was more than 30ºC under the control room high alarm and the increased lubrication oil level is not monitored by any alarm in the control room, this situation could go unnoticed by operation and lead to severe damage in the equipment.
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Action after Shape Lighthouse identification:
The lubrication oil contamination was confirmed a few hours after the Lighthouse alarm, avoiding a possible lubrication failure, which could severely impact the mechanical condition of the compression sleeve bearings.
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After oil replacementt and filtering, the equipment went back available, fixing the issue without impacting in production and avoiding higher maintenance costs.
Savings:
How savings were calculated:
Savings financial values were calculated based on the client's past similar events related to this failure mode and possible consequences, supported by the Shape Lighthouse savings calculation feature.
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Consequence (unavailability):
Catastrophic damage to the compression train due to lubrication deficiency.
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Maintenance scope:
Overhaul of the Main Compressor A train 3.
Avoided losses: