Reliability functions and optimal decisions using condition data for EDF primary pumps

• There are many examples in which proportional hazards modelling (PHM) is used to accurately model the effects of the operating environment on an item's lifetime. Using such techniques it is possible to find an economically optimal moment of replacement based on condition monitoring data. However, in a nuclear power plant, the problem is somewhat different as it is not possible to stop the process and perform preventive maintenance at the most economical moment in time. The problem of interest in such cases has more to do with whether the item will last until the next scheduled plant shutdown or not. This paper presents some developed and implemented theory to calculate the conditional reliability function of an item given the current equipment age and the current values of the condition-monitoring variables. A case study of a shaft seal for a reactor cooling pump (RCP) using data from several French nuclear power plants operated by the Electricité de France (EDF) is also presented.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Maintenance

Markov processes

Nuclear power generation

Reliability estimation

Reliability modeling

Reliability theory

Condition monitoring

Electric power plants

Electric power systems

Electric power transmission networks

Monitoring

Nuclear energy

Nuclear engineering

Nuclear industry

Nuclear power plants

Plant shutdowns

Power transmission

Preventive maintenance

Probability

Pumps

Quality assurance

Reliability

Response time (computer systems)

(e

2e) theory

(e

3e) process

(I

J) conditions

Applied (CO)

case studies

Conditional reliability

international conferences

Monitoring data

Operating environment

Optimal decisions

power systems

Probabilistic methods

Proportional hazards

reactor cooling

Reliability functions

Shaft sealing

Power plants

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)