Are you looking to improve reliability and possibly reduce the cost associated with fixed equipment inspection and maintenance? A risk based inspection (RBI) approach may be what you need.
MISTRAS’ Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) assessment services analyze the potential risks of each asset in your facility in their current operating conditions, and then allows users to choose from highly-effective to least-effective inspection techniques based on the asset’s anticipated damage mechanism.
Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) are conducted in terms of both the probability of failure and the consequence of failure, providing users with a unique view of the condition of each fixed asset in reference to each other.
After risk-based assessments of all fixed assets and your plant operations as a whole are established, MISTRAS can help lower that risk by decreasing failure probability. The combination of RBI planning and advanced NDT technologies may even allow plant operators to safely increase run times of critical plant equipment.
The objectives of implementing an RBI assessment strategy are to provide:
- Risk ranking for equipment included in the process plant
- Inspection guidelines for inspection requirements in a specific plan period
- Equipment inspection recommendations, including interval, method, and procedures
- Electronic equipment data files for future updating and maintenance of inspection program
- Savings in terms of direct cost reduction, avoidance of an incident, or improved operating efficiency
A well-designed RBI program provides a multitude of benefits to plant productivity and safety, including:
- Providing strategies to achieve desired level of mechanical integrity (MI) and reliability
- Reducing downtime by avoiding unplanned outages
- Increasing equipment reliability
- Lowering safety risks
- Optimizing inspection and maintenance costs
- Focusing resources on areas where maintenance is most critical
- Enabling better budgeting and planning for future inspection, maintenance, and run-repair-replace decisions
- More effective turnaround planning
Used in combination with MISTRAS’ industry-leading inspection database management system (IDMS), Plant Condition Management System (PCMS), MISTRAS’ RBI Assessment services encompass multiple offerings.
Qualitative, Quantitative, and Semi-Quantitative RBI Methodologies
MISTRAS utilizes three primary types of RBI methodologies.
Qualitative RBI uses data based on descriptive information using engineering judgment and industry experience as the basis for the analysis of probability and consequence of failure.
Quantitative RBI integrates relevant information such as facility design, operating practices, and operating history into a uniform methodology. It is a much more in-depth, data-intensive analysis than a qualitative assessment.
Semi-Quantitative RBI incorporates aspects from both the qualitative and quantitative approaches. MISTRAS engineers gauge Likelihood of Failure (a quantitative measurement) alongside the qualitative Consequence of Failure to determine risk.
Inspection Scheduling And Planning with RBI
Final results indicate due dates based on RBI or rule-based dates, but users have the option to override rule-based dates with RBI target dates. Detailed inspection plans include scope, damage mechanism, and recommended inspection effectiveness.
Inspection Tracking
Users can create an event to trigger an RBI report, which is also created if a circuit becomes susceptible to a particular damage mechanism. This documents the scope and effectiveness of an inspection, provides detailed inspection plans, and records the final results including recommendations and inspection effectiveness. Approval of the final event updates the RBI assessment automatically with new RBI target and schedule dates.
Staff Augmentation
MISTRAS can provide RBI facilitators, team leaders, and/or RBI practitioners to augment a client-managed implementation, or provide a complete turnkey RBI implementation team. Complete data management services are also available to gather information, process data, and deliver asset integrity and RBI inspection reports and schedules.
And if you require data conversion, custom software development, or training, MISTRAS can meet your needs with PCMS software specialists and developers.
RBI Assessment Case Study
A MISTRAS RBI study of a major refining complex’s operating units determined an integral column in the FCCU should receive a corrosion under insulation (CUI) inspection with over 50% required insulation removal to be effective. Corrosion with depths up to 50% of wall thickness were discovered, allowing the facility to repair the vessel before loss of containment and preventing a potential facility shut down.
RBI Assessment Conclusion
In combination with PCMS, RBI assessments are an incredibly valuable tools for refineries and other process plants.
As these plants are required to keep track of a huge volume of data, centralizing that data in a well-organized data management system like PCMS enables the development of highly-accurate risk algorithms. MISTRAS’ expert engineers can help our clients to compare new mechanical integrity and inspection data against both the plant’s own historical data, and against industry standards, to optimize maintenance spending and safety by focusing on the assets most at risk for failure.
Other benefits of using MISTRAS’ engineers and PCMS to implement an RBI assessment program include:
- Reducing the operating risk of process plant
- Recommendations for reducing the number of assets requiring inspection on the next shutdown/turnaround
- Analyzing the opportunities for reducing the number of internal inspections required per API 510
- Providing a systematic approach to establish and optimize the current piping inspection program
- Reducing the number and frequency of piping inspections required per API 570
- Reducing the overall cost of operation through maintenance and inspection costs and improved operating efficiency
