course-details-portlet

TPK4120

Safety and Reliability Analysis

Choose study year
Credits 7.5
Level Third-year courses, level III
Course start Autumn 2024
Duration 1 semester
Language of instruction English
Location Trondheim
Examination arrangement School exam

About

About the course

Course content

Definition and discussion of basic concepts related to reliability and risk analysis. Functional analysis and identification and evaluation of faults and hazards. System analysis based on FMECA, reliability block diagrams and fault trees. Quantification of reliability and availability of technological systems. Measures for reliability importance. Analysis of repairable systems by Markov methods. Maintenance optimisation. Analysis of safety-critical systems (IEC 61508). Analysis of systems with common cause failures. Estimation of failure rates. Survey of reliability data sources.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

The course shall give a thorough introduction to basic concepts and approaches related to analysis and evaluation of safety and reliability of technical equipment with a special focus on equipment that is used for production and distribution of energy.

Skills:

The students shall be able to identify and assess failures of single units and of complex systems. They shall be able to assess which parts of a system that are of special importance to prevent system failures.

They shall further be able to apply different methods to determine the reliability of single items and complex systems, and identify the pros and cons related to each method.

They shall be able to use different software dedicated to reliability analysis and basic programming tools to get a better understanding of the reliability concepts and be prepared for digitalized working environment.

General competence:

The students shall learn to understand the importance of safety and reliability in relation to applications within production assurance, quality, risk, environmental protection, and sustainable development. They shall, in addition, gain an understanding of the relationship between costs/disadvantages and benefits related to different safety measures.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, project work and exercises. The lectures, exercises and exam are in English.

Compulsory assignments

  • Activities
  • Semester Assignment

Further on evaluation

Four exercises must be submitted and approved to be able to take the exam. A mandatory semester paper shall be carried out. The written exam counts 100 % for the grade.

Mandatory work from previous semester can be accepted by the Department by re-take of an examination if there haven't been any significant changes later.

If there is a re-sit examination, the examination form may be changed from written oral.

Re-sit exam in May/June and August, students can only attend one of the re-sit exams.

Course materials

M. Rausand, A. Barros and A. Høyland: System Reliability Theory; Models, Statistical Methods, and Applications, Third Edition, Wiley 2020 (link). The course has a public home page.

Credit reductions

Course code Reduction From
SIO3020 7.5 sp
This course has academic overlap with the course in the table above. If you take overlapping courses, you will receive a credit reduction in the course where you have the lowest grade. If the grades are the same, the reduction will be applied to the course completed most recently.

Subject areas

  • Safety, Reliability and Maintenance
  • Production and Quality Engineering
  • Technological subjects

Contact information

Course coordinator

Lecturers

Department with academic responsibility

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering