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International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering and Management Sciences

ISSN: 2455-7749 . Open Access


Use of Reliability Block Diagram and Fault Tree Techniques in Reliability Analysis of Emergency Diesel Generators of Nuclear Power Plants

Use of Reliability Block Diagram and Fault Tree Techniques in Reliability Analysis of Emergency Diesel Generators of Nuclear Power Plants

Vanderley de Vasconcelos
Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear – CDTN/CNEN, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

Wellington Antonio Soares
Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear – CDTN/CNEN, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

Antônio Carlos Lopes da Costa
Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear – CDTN/CNEN, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

Amanda Laureano Raso
Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear – CDTN/CNEN, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.33889/IJMEMS.2019.4.4-064

Received on April 08, 2019
  ;
Accepted on May 08, 2019

Abstract

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are subjected to events such as equipment failures, human errors and common-cause failures, in an environment of complex maintenance, inspection and testing managements. These events will affect the reliability of safety-related systems, as well as the risk level of the plant. Reliability block diagram (RBD) is often used to analyze the effect of item failures on system availability, taking into account their physical arrangement in the system. Fault tree (FT) is a commonly used technique for analyzing risk and reliability in nuclear, aeronautical and chemical industries. It represents graphically the basic events that will cause an undesired top event. Loss of electrical power is one of the main events that influences safe operation of NPPs, as well as accident prevention and mitigation. In case of unavailability of offsite power, emergency diesel generators (EDGs) supply onsite electrical power. This paper carries out reliability analyses of EDGs of NPPs using both RBD and FT techniques. Each technique has its own advantages and disadvantages, allowing a variety of qualitative and quantitative analyses. Outcomes using these two techniques are compared for a typical NPP EDG system.

Keywords- Reliability block diagram, Fault tree, Emergency diesel generator, Nuclear power plant, Reliability.

Citation

de Vasconcelos, V., Soares, W. A., da Costa, A. C. L., & Raso, A. L. (2019). Use of Reliability Block Diagram and Fault Tree Techniques in Reliability Analysis of Emergency Diesel Generators of Nuclear Power Plants. International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering and Management Sciences, 4(4), 814-823. https://dx.doi.org/10.33889/IJMEMS.2019.4.4-064.