Behavior analysis of synthesis unit in fertilizer plant

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a technique for analyzing the behavior of an industrial system utilizing vague, imprecise, and uncertain data. The synthesis unit of a urea plant situated in northern part of India has been considered to demonstrate the proposed approach. Sensitivity analysis of system's behaviour has also been done in it.

Design/methodology/approach

In the proposed approach, traditional Lambda‐Tau technique is used to analyze the behavior of a complex repairable synthesis unit of a fertilizer industry up to a desired degree of accuracy. This technique has been demonstrated by computing eight well‐known reliability indices which are used for behaviour analysis of the considered system in a more promising way.

Findings

The study of analysis of reliability, availability, maintainability etc can help in increasing the production and quality of synthesis. To ensure the system performance throughout its service life, it is necessary to set up proper maintenance, planning and control which can be done after studying the variation of reliability, availability with respect to time. Thus, it may be a more useful analysis tool to access the current system condition and involved uncertainties. The present paper suggested an approach to improve the system's performance.

Originality/value

The paper suggests a technique for analyzing the stochastic behavior of an industrial subsystem by computing eight well‐known reliability indices in the form of fuzzy membership function. The benefits for the methodology include the ability to model and deal with highly complex system as fuzzy sets can deal easily with approximations and it helps in improving and handling the uncertainties and possibilities.

Citation

Garg, H. and Sharma, S.P. (2012), "Behavior analysis of synthesis unit in fertilizer plant", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 217-232. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656711211199928