Evaluation of the Accident Rate of a Plant Equipped with an Aging Single Protective Channel by the Method of Supplementary Variables

ABSTRACT

This work calculates the reliability of protective systems of industrial facilities, such as nuclear, to analyze the case of equipment subject to aging, important in the extension of the qualified life of the facilities. By means of the method of supplementary variables, a system of partial and ordinary integral-differential equations was developed for the probabilities of a protective system of an aging channel. The system of equations was solved by finite differences. The method was validated by comparison with channel results with exponential failure times. The method of supplementary variables exhibits reasonable results for values of reliability attributes typical of industrial facilities.

KEYWORDS:
industrial facilities; protective systems; non-markovian processes; Markov chains; finite differences; useful life extension