Energy, Vol.179, 989-1003, 2019
P-graph-based multi-objective risk analysis and redundancy allocation in safety-critical energy systems
As most of the energy production and transformation processes are safety-critical, it is vital to develop tools that support the analysis and minimisation of their reliability-related risks. The resultant optimisation problem should reflect the structure of the process which requires the utilisation of flexible and problem-relevant models. This paper highlights that P-graphs extended by logical condition units can be transformed into reliability block diagrams, and based on the cut and path sets of the graph a polynomial risk model can be extracted which opens up new opportunities for the definition optimisation problems related to reliability redundancy allocation. A novel multi-objective optimisation based method has been developed to evaluate the criticality of the units and subsystems. The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated using a real-life case study related to a reforming reaction system. The results highlight that P-graphs can serve as an interface between process flow diagrams and polynomial risk models and the developed tool can improve the reliability of energy systems in retrofitting projects. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Reliability of energy systems;P-graph based process optimisation;Risk analysis;Critical components;Multi-objective optimisation