Note: Presentations may start a few minutes before the time listed in the schedule.
Machinery failures can have a significant operational impact due to downtime and corrective maintenance costs. The goal of a Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) is to identify the cause of the failure and to avoid recurrence. This introductory tutorial of basics course will review the methodology associated with the RCFA process as it applies to common failures affecting industrial machines such as turbines, centrifugal compressors, and electric motors. The course covers the formal RCFA process, and related analysis techniques and solution determination methods. The critical role of initial inspection of failed parts, to include contamination-free collection of samples, and protection of evidence, will be discussed. The use of metallurgy in RCFA investigations will be described, including typical failure modes, key damage mechanism initiation and propagation, common fracture examination and imaging techniques, confirmation of material properties, environmental effects, contamination studies, and degradation of coatings. Several engineering concepts that are useful when investigating typical failures will be discussed, including impact testing, finite element analysis, mechanical resonance, static stress overload, high cycle cumulative fatigue, and computational fluid dynamics. The course will conclude with a review of using the RCFA process to document key analysis findings to establish cause and effect, a process which can help establish not only the root cause but contributing factors as well.
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TOB-39-01: An Introduction to Root Cause Failure Analysis for Industrial Machinery
