Performability and Sensitivity Analysis of the Three Pumps of a Desalination Water Pumping Station

The individual performance of the three pumps of a system distributing the desalinated water is analyzed. Three pumps are being used to supply the potable water to the end users after getting treated at the desalination plant. To ensure the continuous operation of the pumps to avoid water supply disruption, it is of utmost importance to monitor and maintain the operational capabilities of all three pumps. Maintenance data for five years on different failure reasons have been collected, which also includes the restoration and waiting times to bring the pumps back into operation. The main objective is to compare the operational capabilities of each of the three pumps to establish which pump is the least performing and needs attention to improve upon the entire system. Markov and regenerative processes have been used in the analysis to obtain the performance indicators of the three pumps in terms of reliability & availability. Sensitivity analysis has also been performed to establish the significance of different parameters on the reliability outcomes. https://doi.org/10.14445/22315381/IJETT-V71I1P225

KEYWORDS: Reliability, Desalination, Pumping station, Markov processes, Regenerative processes, Sensitivity analysis.