ReliaSoft BlockSim

BlockSim supports an extensive array of reliability block diagram (RBD) configurations and fault tree analysis (FTA) gates and events, including advanced capabilities to model complex configurations, load sharing, standby redundancy, phases and duty cycles. Using exact computations and/or discrete event simulation, BlockSim facilitates a wide variety of analyses for both repairable and non-repairable systems. This includes:

• System Reliability Analysis
• Identification of Critical Components
• Reliability Optimization
• System Maintainability Analysis (Determine Optimum Preventive Maintenance Intervals, etc.)
• System Availability Analysis (Calculate Uptime, Downtime, Availability, etc.)
• Throughput Calculation (Identify Bottlenecks, Estimate Production Capacity, etc.)
• Resource Allocation for Maintenance Planning
• Life Cycle Cost Analysis

The BlockSim software provides an extensive array of tools to help you model and analyse systems and/or processes, which can support the needs of both product designers and equipment operators/asset managers. Some of the potential applications and benefits for using reliability block diagrams (RBDs), fault tree analysis (FTA) and ReliaSoft’s BlockSim software include:

• Identify critical components (or failure modes) and determine the most effective ways to improve system performance through design improvements and/or maintenance planning.
• Use simulation to obtain estimated performance metrics that can facilitate decision-making in a variety of areas, such as scheduling planned maintenance, planning for spares, identifying bottlenecks in production throughput and estimating life cycle costs.
• Identify vulnerabilities in a system and determine the most effective ways to reduce the risk.

BlockSim’s interface for Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) creation is highly intuitive and flexible:

• Simple drag-and-drop techniques allow you to build RBDs for the simplest to the most complex systems. Configuration options include Series, Parallel, and k-out-of-n (and in various complex combinations).
• Load Sharing Blocks: In a load sharing configuration, each block supports a percentage of the total load.
• Standby Blocks: In a standby configuration, standby blocks are available to become active under specified circumstances.
• Mirrored and Multi Blocks: Provide increased versatility with the ability to simulate bi-directional paths, save time/space when entering multiple identical blocks, and more…
• Unlimited subdiagram capability to link diagrams as components in other diagrams.
• Customizable graphical display with the ability to export diagram graphics.
• Pre-defined templates and import/export to save time and ensure consistency, ability to de-activate individual blocks for “what-if” analyses, file attachments, and more…

BlockSim’s fault tree analysis interface supports all of the traditional FTA gates and event symbols that are applicable to system reliability and related analyses (including AND, OR, Voting OR, Inhibit, Priority AND and Sequence Enforcing gates along with Basic, Undeveloped, Trigger, Resultant and Conditional events). In addition, BlockSim allows you to expand the modeling capabilities through the introduction of new logic gates to represent Load Sharing and Standby Redundancy configurations.

Your BlockSim projects can contain both fault trees and reliability block diagrams, together in the same analysis environment. You can even integrate your fault trees and RBDs by linking a fault tree as a subdiagram to an RBD or vice versa; copying events from a fault tree diagram and pasting them as blocks in an RBD; and automatically converting any fault tree diagram to a reliability block diagram.

Using an exclusive algorithm pioneered by ReliaSoft, BlockSim algebraically computes the exact system reliability function for even the most complex systems. Calculated results include Reliability, Failure Rate, MTTF, Warranty Time, B(X) Life, pdf plots, Reliability Importance plots, and more…

Also exclusively in BlockSim, you can enter cost and achievable reliability improvement information to determine the most cost-effective component reliability allocation strategy to meet a system reliability goal.

BlockSim’s simulation capability for maintainability analysis and availability analysis of repairable systems is more sophisticated and realistic than ever. These tools can be used to help you plan and improve a new product design and also to help equipment operators achieve effective asset management.

• Corrective Maintenance (CM), Preventive Maintenance (PM) and Inspection
  • Maintenance Duration and Restoration Factors. Specify time-dependent distributions or fixed durations for maintenance actions and whether the item will be “as good as new” or less than 100% restored by the maintenance.
  • Maintenance Policies. Describe the conditions under which maintenance will be performed (e.g. upon fixed interval, maintenance of another group item, etc.).
  • Spare Parts Pools and Maintenance Crews. Describe the conditions under which spare parts can be obtained and crews are available to perform maintenance, as well as the associated costs.
  • Duty Cycles. Apply a factor to define a duty cycle for a block that may experience a different stress load than the other blocks in the diagram.
• Reliability Phase Diagrams
  Use BlockSim’s intuitive Phase Diagram Sheets to model systems that go through different phases during the course of their operation. For example, some aircraft components (such as landing gear) operate only during the take-off and landing phases of a mission and others (such as engines) experience a higher failure rate during these phases due to higher stress. Only BlockSim provides the ability to completely change the configuration and component properties from one phase to another. The software also introduces and fully supports the concept of Maintenance Phases, which allow you to model scenarios in which a system goes into maintenance after completing a specific sequence of phases or skips remaining phases and goes directly to maintenance if a failure occurs.
• Comprehensive Results and Plots
  Maintainability and availability results per system and/or per block including: Uptime, Downtime, Mean Time to First Failure (MTTFF), Mean Availabilities, Point Availabilities, Point Reliabilities, Number of Failures, Number of PMs, Number of Inspections, Plots of System Uptime/Downtime, Point Availability vs. Time, Point Reliability vs. Time, and more.

The simulations also provide Life Cycle Cost summaries, Throughput estimations, Optimum PM time calculations, and many other results necessary to make effective decisions about your systems.

• Weibull++
• ALTA
• Lambda Predict
• Xfmea
• RCM++