Risk based assessment of gas turbines in pipeline service

This work covers risk based methodologies that are applied to aging gas turbines operating along a pipeline. Data from three decades of operation are presented within the framework of qualitative, semi quantitative and quantitative assessments of operational risk. A detailed RAM simulation model is developed to assess the performance of the pipeline using historical failure and repair data. The total risk is estimated within a fully quantitative model considering replacement cost, repair cost, operation cost, risk of failure and remaining value after a specified period of time. The presented risk assessment methods are shown to be very effective tools in making repair vs. replacement decisions and in evaluating remaining useful life. Copyright © 2014 by ASME.