MSc Reliability Engineering and Asset Management / Course details

This course unit detail provides the framework for delivery in 20/21 and may be subject to change due to any additional Covid-19 impact.  Please see Blackboard / course unit related emails for any further updates

Analysing the reliability of plant items: Setting the scene: needs, definitions, and statistics of item failure. Decision analysis: identifying reliability problems using Pareto and trend analysis. Weibull analysis: graphical analysis of item life data, method of Median Ranks, the Cumulative Hazard plot. 

Assessing the reliability of plant systems: Reliability Block Diagrams  (RDBs): representation and assessment of the reliability of simple configurations. Assessment of larger, more complex and proof-tested systems, via System Reduction, Truth Table and Bayesian Techniques. Maintainability analysis. Estimating system repair times.

Advanced reliability and safety assessment: Fault Tree Analysis: (a) symbols and construction, (b) minimum cut sets, (c) top event quantification, (d) importance measures. Event Tree Analysis.  Simulation.  Case studies of applications in design for industrial safety. 
 

The unit aims to:  equip the student with –

•  a working knowledge of the analytical techniques of reliability engineering;

•  an appreciation of the contribution that these techniques can make to the task of enhancing (a) the effectiveness of the maintenance function and (b) the availability, maintainability and, where relevant, the safety of the physical assets involved;

• an understanding of the information that will be needed if such benefits are to be realised

Analysing the reliability of plant items: Setting the scene: needs, definitions, and statistics of item failure. Decision analysis: identifying reliability problems using Pareto and trend analysis. Weibull analysis: graphical analysis of item life data, method of Median Ranks, the Cumulative Hazard plot. 

Assessing the reliability of plant systems: Reliability Block Diagrams  (RDBs): representation and assessment of the reliability of simple configurations. Assessment of larger, more complex and proof-tested systems, via System Reduction, Truth Table and Bayesian Techniques. Maintainability analysis. Estimating system repair times.

Advanced reliability and safety assessment: Fault Tree Analysis: (a) symbols and construction, (b) minimum cut sets, (c) top event quantification, (d) importance measures. Event Tree Analysis.  Simulation.  Case studies of applications in design for industrial safety. 
 

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