A Data-Driven Methodology for the Reliability Analysis of the Natural Gas Compressor Unit Considering Multiple Failure Modes

In this study, a data-driven methodology for the reliability analysis of natural gas compressor units is developed, and both the historical failure data and performance data are employed. In this methodology, firstly, the reliability functions of the catastrophic failure and degradation failure are built. For catastrophic failure, the historical failure data are collected, and the rank regression model is utilized to obtain the reliability function of the catastrophic failure. For degradation failure, a support-vector machine is employed to predict the unit’s performance parameters, and the reliability function of the degradation failure is determined by comparing the performance parameters with the failure threshold. Finally, the reliability of the compressor unit is assessed and predicted by integrating the reliability functions of the catastrophic failure and the degradation failure, and both their correlation and competitiveness are considered. Furthermore, the developed methodology is applied to an actual compressor unit to confirm its feasibility, and the reliability of the compressor unit is predicted. The assessment results indicate the significant impact of the operating conditions on the precise forecasting of the performance parameters. Moreover, the effects of the value of the failure threshold and the correlation of the two failure modes on the reliability are investigated.