Maintenance Priorities for a Repairable System of a Thermal Power Plant Subject to Availability Constraint

In the present paper, at a thermal power station, a repairable system consisting of flue gases and air system has been considered for deciding the maintenance priorities. The mathematical equations for solving the system are derived using Chapman-Kolmogorov equation, assuming constant failure and repair rates for all the subsystems. Differential equations are generated, after drawing the transition diagram and then steady state probabilities are determined. After that, the availability matrix is developed, which provides various performance/availability levels for different combinations of failure and repair rates of all the subsystems. Based upon various availability values and graphs of failure/repair rates of different subsystems, performance and optimum values of failure/repair rates for maximum availability of each subsystem are analyzed. Consequently maintenance priorities are decided for all the subsystems of a thermal power plant.