Reliability of equipment in time-varying processes

许多工业过程在时变条件下运行。例如制造单元，机器人操纵器运动，CANDU反应堆换料，采矿挖掘，以及矿物加工操作中的泵送速率变化和阀门驱动。瞬态条件使设备状态监测和诊断变得困难；这种可变性对长期在复杂的集成工厂中实现可靠的工艺性能提出了特别的挑战。这样的工厂可能会有很高的机会成本，与设备故障、工艺干扰和维护中断相关的生产损失，特别是在库存有限或冗余的情况下。集成工业过程将不得不越来越依赖信息，通过使用过程控制以及对系统可靠性的在线评估和生产和维护决策的故障分类，在降低能源强度和减少中间浪涌容量的情况下保持过程的稳健性。对于具有多种运行模式和可变运行条件的系统，没有一个通用的框架来评估和控制作为过程运行函数的设备可靠性。

Many industrial processes operate in time-varying conditions. Examples are manufacturing cells, robot manipulator motions, CANDU reactor refuelling, mining excavation, and pumping rate changes and valve actuation in mineral processing operations. Transient conditions make equipment condition monitoring and diagnostics difficult; and this variability poses a particular challenge in achieving reliable process performance in complex, integrated plants for extended periods of time. Such plants can have high opportunity costs of lost production associated with equipment faults, process interferences, and maintenance outages, particularly when there is limited inventory or redundancy. Integrated industrial processes will have to rely increasingly on information to maintain process robustness with reduced energy intensity and less intermediate surge capacity, by using process control as well as on-line assessments of system reliability and fault classification for production and maintenance decision-making. For systems that have multiple operating modes and variable operating conditions, there is no general framework for assessing and controlling equipment reliability as a function of process operation.