Jk. Cochran et al., Generic Markov models for availability estimation and failure characterization in petroleum refineries, COMPUT OPER, 28(1), 2001, pp. 1-12
Chemical process plant decision making is ongoing during operation based up
on availability both of components and of the entire system. These decision
s include repair policies, maintenance strategies, and inspection routines.
The industry state-of-the-art in availability analysis is a Petri Net simu
lation. It produces confidence intervals on availabilities. In this paper,
we present an alternative - generic Markov models. Our models produce exact
results in the case of exponential failure and repair times, are at least
as easy to use during model building, and reduce computational effort by or
ders of magnitude. A case study of a reactor regenerator system in a Fluid
Catalytic Cracking Unit in a petroleum refinery is presented.