(55cm) Engineering Framework to Assess Equipment Reliability of Air Fin Coolers in Process Plant Industries

Air fin coolers are one of the most important assets in process plant facilities for ensuring continued operational excellence and production rate of the process plant. There are numerous remaining life assessment (RLA) and reliability engineering (RE) methodologies available for performing condition assessment of the air fin coolers. Most methodologies concentrate on the mechanical integrity (MI) aspects of air fin coolers such as the header box and fin tubes life assessment using recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP) to primarily address the loss of containment (process fluid) scenarios. There is rarely a comprehensive methodology or framework that also covers the dynamic parts such as fin blades, electrical motor, gear box and propeller (fan) in assessing remaining life of the air fin coolers. This article will outline a thorough reliability engineering or remaining life assessment framework (holistic methodology) that will cover both the mechanical integrity (header box and fin tubes) and reliability aspects (fin blades, electrical motor, gear box and propeller) aspects enabling the asset integrity (reliability & maintenance) engineering personnel to generate a technical, coherent, and auditable reliability report for the air fin coolers.