An analytic hierarchy process model approach to selecting a maintenance strategy for a new nuclear power plant
Date
2019
Authors
Joseph, Andy Irvin
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Abstract
Maintenance strategies are important for the reliability and safety of nuclear power
plants. Cost competitiveness in the energy markets and closure of nuclear power plants
highlighted the need to optimise maintenance strategies to reduce cost while
preserving safety and reliability. This research proposes using the Analytic Hierarchy
Process (AHP) decision model to determine the optimal maintenance strategy mix
where nuclear safety, cost and reliability are considered as the primary criteria.
Nuclear experts are used to conduct pairwise comparisons to select the preferred
maintenance strategy for different Continents and WANO centres. The research
concludes that nuclear experts prefer safety as the highest criteria and also prefer a
maintenance strategy that have a split between the preventive maintenance (PM),
predictive maintenance (PdM) and reliability centered maintenance (RCM) strategies,
with PM as the highest ranked maintenance strategy followed by PdM and RCM. The
study also concludes that the AHP model is an effective model to be used in the nuclear
industry and is comparable with results from other industries
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering.
June 2019