Availability of Repairable Systems and Processes

Today, technical systems must not only be reliable and powerful, but also highly available, sustainable, and economical to operate. Modeling, simulation, and analysis of the behavior of complex technical systems and processes play a central role in optimal system design and in optimizing availability and efficiency in operation.

In our research, methods for analyzing, predicting, and optimizing reliability parameters are being developed and applied for this purpose. These enable detailed modeling of systems, taking into account interactions, maintenance strategies, resource capacities, and other logistical aspects. Among other things, extended colored stochastic Petri nets (ECSPN) and Monte Carlo simulations are used for this purpose. The fields of application range from vehicle powertrains, flexible production systems, solar power plants, and adaptive structures to offshore wind turbine systems.

As part of this research area, REALIST (Reliability, Availability, Logistics and Inventory Simulation Tool) was developed. REALIST enables realistic modeling, simulation, and analysis of technical systems using higher-level Petri nets. The tool allows for a comprehensive view of the system, operation, external resources, and component, maintenance, and cost aspects. This enables maintenance and reserve capacities to be planned and optimized, which increases availability, boosts productivity, and reduces costs. Optimized Monte Carlo simulations are used to determine key figures for reliability, availability, maintainability, and costs, and to verify requirements from specifications and functional specifications. This allows maintenance strategies to be optimized in terms of costs and productivity and creates the basis for a sustainable increase in availability.