Predictive Maintenance System for Rotating Machinery Onboard Ships for Detecting Performance Degradation

Abstract

Maintenance of rotating machinery is crucial for extending the lifespan and increasing the reliability of equipment onboard ships. Presently, breakdown and preventive methodologies are used for the maintenance of equipment. Further, dataloggers collect critical machinery parameters, and parameter data is used for real-time parameter monitoring. The availability of such extensive monitoring data has also led to the adoption predictive maintenance methodologies in the industry, wherein machine learning-based analysis of recorded data is used to predict impending defects and prompt required maintenance. In this paper, we propose a predictive maintenance system that records data through a network of sensors installed over multiple electrical motor pump sets onboard the ship and uses statistical analysis to detect equipment degradation. Our system has been deployed onboard a ship to undertake real-time predictive maintenance of electrical motor pump sets used in firemain, AC plants, stabilizers, steering pumps and other auxiliary engine room machinery.