METHODS TO UNDERSTAND AND ANALYZE AGING EFFECTS

IN ORDER TO DEVELOP AN ACCURATE, ANALYTICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE EQUIPMENT AGING PROCESS, THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF TTHE AGING PHENOMENON MUST BE UNDERSTOOD. FOR COMPLEX EQUIP MENT, THE INTERACTIVE EFFECT CAN BE DETERMINED BY PARTITION ING THE EQUIPMENT INTO SMALLER REPLACEABLE PARTS, DEFINING THE AGING AFFECTRS ON THE PARTS, AND THEN COMBINING THE PARTLEVEL EFFECTS TO REFLECT THE ASSEMBLED EQUIPMENT. TO ENSURE THAT ALL OF THE PARTS ARE IDENTIFIED AND ALL OF THE AGE-RELATED INTERACTION CONSIDERED, A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH SUCH AS THE "N2 DIAGRAM" TECHNIQUE CAN BE APPLIED. BASED ON N2 DIAGRAMS OF THE EQUIPMENT, QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS CAN THEN BE CONVERTED INTO MATH EMATICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND CONBINED ACCORDINGLY. THIS BOTTOBOTTOMS UP APPROACH CAN BE USED, THEREFORE, TO PREDICT C CHANGES IN EQUIPMENT PERFORMANCE DUE TO AGE. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY, THEREFORE, IS TO SHOW THAT THIS APPROACH IS FEASIBLE BY APPLYING IT TO THREE EXAMPLE CASES (INVERTER, DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE TRANSIMITTER, AND AIR COMPRESSOR) AND TO DESIGN A SOFTWARE AND DATABASE SYSTEM TO SUPPORT THE USE THE N2 TECHNIQUE.