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MAROFF-2-Maritim virksomhet og offsh-2

Novel Failure Monitoring System for Marine Applications by including Acoustic Emission

Alternative title: Nytt tilstandsovervåkningssystem for marin anvendelse med akustisk emisjon.

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Gear systems are critical in maritime vessels and wind turbines, and damage of components in these systems may lead to catastrophic and costly failure. Today, gears and bearings are often monitored by frequent inspections and manual condition monitoring. However, closed gears are not easily inspected, and if so very costly, and in autonomous and remote-controlled vessels and subsea installations, remote condition monitoring is the only option over long periods of time. The current vibration-based condition monitoring systems for rotating machinery responds on the detectable vibrations caused by severe material failure such as large cracks or surface defects, and thus have limited sensitivity and capability for detecting sub surface failures and pre-failure damage. Therefore, when damage is detected, total failure is often imminent, leaving little or no time for adjusting the operating parameters to avoid further damage. The AEMON project has investigated the application of Acoustic Emission (AE) for detection of damage prior to what can be detected by vibration monitoring. The industry partners Kongsberg Maritime by its divisions in Trondheim and Ulsteinvik, Equinor Energy and Island Offshore represent manufacturers and end users of propulsion systems and condition monitoring systems. Together with SINTEF and NTNU, the partners have performed research on AE failure monitoring in the lab and in the field, signal processing, materials characterization to be able to develop a novel online condition monitoring system for running rotating equipment. In the project two alternative methods, an advanced signal processing method as well as a new machine learning model based on GAN technology, have been developed to detect micrometre sized damage below the surface of material components similarly to components for rotating equipment while running. The AE technology is part of KM's existing hardware and software components that are currently part of the product portfolio for condition monitoring of rotating machinery for maritime applications. Including monitoring of propulsion systems and other equipment for ships where critical components such as gears and bearings are monitored for safe operational conditions. AE will allow for a transition from schedule-based maintenance to predictive maintenance in the future and both save cost as well as preventing unexpected failures at sea.

The project will contribute to increased predictability, significantly reduced operational cost and increased international market shares for all project partners. The introduction of AE to the Kongsberg Condition Monitoring system will increase sales through higher market share from improved performance and by making the system suited for additional applications. Project AEMON has developed technology enabling users of rotating equipment instrumented with AE much improved knowledge of the condition of the equipment as it provides a direct measurement of failure. Dry-docking time for marine vessels and warrantee costs for thrusters are assumed to be reduced. A major offshore wind turbine repair, e.g. a gearbox or main bearing, suffer costs in the range of 20-40 MNOK. Equinor expects major savings if wind turbine down time and better planning for offshore repairs and maintenance can reduce the cost.

Bearings and gear boxes are critical components in maritime vessels and wind turbines, and damage in these components may lead to catastrophic and costly failure. Today, bearings and gears are often monitored by frequent inspections and manual condition monitoring. However, closed gears are not easily inspected, and in autonomous and remote-controlled vessels and subsea installations, remote condition monitoring is the only option over long periods of time. The current vibration based condition monitoring systems for rotating machinery responds on the detectible vibrations caused by severe material failure such as large cracks or surface defects, and thus have limited sensitivity and capability for detecting pre-failure damage. When damage is detected, total failure is often imminent, leaving little or no time for adjusting the operating parameters to avoid further damage. Therefore, the AEMON project will develop a novel condition monitoring system by the application of Acoustic Emission for detection of damage prior to what can be detected by vibration monitoring. Earlier warning of damage prior to a detrimental failure will enable more reliable estimates of the remaining useful lifetime and be a tool for decision support. AEMON will also seek to combine vibration and AE signals to map the whole degradation curve and use this to estimate the remaining useful lifetime of a component. The industry partners Kongsberg Maritime, Rolls-Royce Marine, Equinor Energy and Island Offshore represent manufacturer of propulsion systems, condition monitoring systems and the end users of both. Together with SINTEF and NTNU, the partners will perform research on AE failure monitoring in the lab and in the field, signal processing, materials characterization and development of the CM system. The project will cooperate internationally with universities in England and Russia and the UK based engineering company Ricardo and the German bearing producer Schaeffler.

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Funding scheme:

MAROFF-2-Maritim virksomhet og offsh-2