Safety and Reliability Analysis

Definition and discussion of basic concepts related to reliability and risk analysis. Functional analysis and identification and evaluation of faults and hazards. System analysis based on FMECA, reliability block diagrams and fault trees. Quantification of reliability and availability of technological systems. Measures for reliability importance. Analysis of repairable systems by Markov methods. Maintenance optimisation. Analysis of safety-critical systems (IEC 61508). Analysis of systems with common cause failures. Estimation of failure rates. Survey of reliability data sources.

Knowledge:

The course shall give a thorough introduction to basic concepts and approaches related to analysis and evaluation of safety and reliability of technical equipment with a special focus on equipment that is used for production and distribution of energy.

Skills:

The students shall be able to identify and assess failures of single units and of complex systems. They shall be able to assess which parts of a system that are of special importance to prevent system failures.

They shall further be able to apply different methods to determine the reliability of single items and complex systems, and identify the pros and cons related to each method.

They shall be able to use different software dedicated to reliability analysis and basic programming tools to get a better understanding of the reliability concepts and be prepared for digitalized working environment.

General competence:

The students shall learn to understand the importance of safety and reliability in relation to applications within production assurance, quality, risk, environmental protection, and sustainable development. They shall, in addition, gain an understanding of the relationship between costs/disadvantages and benefits related to different safety measures.

Lectures and exercises. The lectures, exercises and exam are in English.