Search

Premium Membership ♕

Limited Time Offer: Save 15% on PRO Plan with discount code: LRN15 and study specialized LV/MV/HV technical articles and studies.

Dependability and its components

Equipment failures, unavailability of a power supply, stoppage of automated equipment and accidents are quickly becoming unacceptable events, be it to the ordinary citizen or industrial manufacturers. Dependability and its components: reliability, maintainability, availability and safety, have become a science that no designer can afford to ignore.

This technical report presents the basic concepts and an explanation of its basic computational methods. Some examples and several numerical values are given to complement the formulas and references to the various computer tools usually applied in this field.

Importance of dependability

Prehistoric men had to depend on their arms for survival. Modern man is surrounded by ever more sophisticated tools and systems on which he depends for safety, efficiency and comfort. Ordinary citizen are specially concerned in everyday life by:

  • the reliability of the TV set,
  • the availability of the mains supply,
  • the maintainability of freezers and cars,
  • the safety of their boiler valves.

Bankers and, in general, service industries give a lot of weight to:

  • computer reliability,
  • availability of heating,
  • maintainability of elevators,
  • fire related safety.

In competitive industries it is not possible to tolerate production losses. This is even more so for complex industrial processes. In these cases one vies to obtain the best:

  • reliability of command and control systems,
  • availability of machine tools,
  • maintainability of production tools,
  • personnel and invested capital safety.

These characteristics, known under the general term of DEPENDABILITY, are related to the concept of reliance, (to depend upon something). They are quantified in relation to a goal, they are computed in terms of a probability and are obtained by the choice of an architecture and its components. They can be verified by suitable tests or by experience.

For over 20 years Merlin Gerin has pioneered work in the DEPENDABILITY field: in the past, with its contribution to the design of nuclear power plants or the high availability of power supplies used at the launching site of the ARIANE space program, nowadays, by its design of products and systems used worldwide.

AUTHOR: Schneider Electric expert | Pascal BONNEFOI

Title:Introduction to dependability design
Format:PDF
Size:0.2MB
Pages:21
Download:Right here | Video Courses | Membership | Download Updates

Introduction to dependability design

Premium Membership

Get access to premium HV/MV/LV technical articles, advanced electrical engineering guides, papers, and much more! It will help you to shape up your technical skills in your everyday life as an electrical engineer.
50% Discount 💥 - Save 50% on all 90+ video courses with Enterprise Membership plan.

More Information

Leave a Comment

Tell us what you're thinking. We care about your opinion! Please keep in mind that comments are moderated and rel="nofollow" is in use. So, please do not use a spammy keyword or a domain as your name, or it will be deleted. Let's have a professional and meaningful conversation instead. Thanks for dropping by!

seven  ×  one  =  

Learn How to Design Power Systems

Learn to design LV/MV/HV power systems through professional video courses. Lifetime access. Enjoy learning!

Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe to our Weekly Digest newsletter and receive free updates on new technical articles, video courses and guides (PDF).
EEP Academy Courses - A hand crafted cutting-edge electrical engineering knowledge