Title: Availability analysis and evaluation of series parallel system using soft computing technique

Authors: Ajay Kumar; Ramesh Kumar Garg

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal 131 039, Haryana, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal 131 039, Haryana, India

Abstract: The scope of the present study is to compute the optimal availability by selecting the various combinations of failure and repair rates of various subsystems. Mathematical models are prepared using the Markov approach from transition diagrams which provides various possibilities and combinations of probabilities associated with the different states. In order to explore various possible combinations of random failure and repair rate to achieve optimal availability of a system, an evolutionary optimisation technique, i.e. PSO, is applied for the first time for predicting the availability in process industry. The technique is validated by comparing the results obtained for optimal availability with that of existing optimising techniques, i.e. Genetic Algorithm and Markov method. It is established that the results are useful for plant personnel for analysing system behaviour and thereby to increase the system performance by adopting a suitable maintenance program and strategies.

Keywords: performance analysis; reliability; failure rate; repair rate; availability; brewery plant; particle swarm optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRS.2016.084478

International Journal of Reliability and Safety, 2016 Vol.10 No.4, pp.346 - 367

Accepted: 01 Feb 2017
Published online: 07 Jun 2017 *

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