A New Methodology for Risk-Based Availability Analysis

This paper presents a risk-based methodology to estimate optimal inspection & maintenance intervals which maximize a system's availability. The methodology is comprised of two steps: availability modeling, and risk-based inspection & maintenance calculations. The methodology is easy to apply, and needs readily available data. The approach can be further improved by including an updating scheme based on the results of previous inspections. The proposed methodology is applied to the steam generating system of an oil fired thermal power plant. The results of the availability analysis are discussed here.