Reliability Analysis of Gas Compressing System Using Cumulative Distribution Functions

This study evaluated the reliability of natural gas compressing system at Soku and Obigbo gas stations over a period of 4 years. Historical failure data of the compressing system at the gas stations were evaluated using exponential cumulative distribution function (ECDF) and Weibull cumulative distribution function (WCDF) to analyze the compressors reliability. The mean time between successive maintenance at the gas stations occurred within a short interval. This implies a high frequency of failures of the compressing system. The WCDF and ECDF established that the reliability of the gas compressing systems reduced with time. Within the investigation period, the probability of failure of the compressor components at Soku gas station ranged from 0.5301 to 0.6959 for WCDF and 0.3533 to 0.8251 for ECDF, while the reliability ranged from 0.4699 to 0.3041 for WCDF and 0.6467 to 0.1749 for ECDF. Similarly, the probability of failure of the compressor components at Obigbo gas station ranged from 0.5596 to 0.6818 for WCDF and 0.3986 to 0.8101 for ECDF, while the reliability ranged from 0.4404 to 0.3182 for WCDF and 0.6014 to 0.1899 for ECDF. The results indicated that the mean time between consecutive failures reduced the reliability of the compressors at the gas stations. Generally, the analysis revealed that effective maintenance practices are crucial for optimal performance and reliability of the compressing systems at Soku and Obigbo natural gas stations. Hence, WCDF or ECDF can be applied to improve the performance of the compressing system through evaluation of failure that will result in useful information on the system reliability.