Design-for-Availability: Designing Safety, Mission and Infrastructure Critical Systems to Meet Availability Targets

这项研究奖励的目的是开发一种新的方法，该方法使用可用性需求作为确定系统最佳设计和管理过程的输入。可用性是指服务或系统在被请求使用或操作时能够正常工作的能力。可用性取决于项目的可靠性（它发生故障的频率）和可维护性（当它发生故障时恢复的效率）。可用性是许多系统的重要问题，包括：ATM机、销售点系统、医疗设备、风力发电场、军事系统和航空公司。对于这些安全、任务和基础设施关键系统，客户通常对通过“可用性合同”购买系统的可用性感兴趣，而不是实际购买系统本身。本研究将开发一种适用于单个和多个设计参数的可用性方法设计，执行模型验证，将模型与生命周期成本分析集成，并将模型应用于物流和可靠性参数，以及预后和健康管理（PHM）环境。如果成功，这项研究将提供一个重要的新功能：a)执行实时的主动可用性分析；B)确定需求“向下”流向供应链；c)执行前瞻性可靠性与物流的权衡，评估交付和支持系统所需的成本和资源，并遵守可用性合同。不能维持系统的可用性可能导致巨大的成本，在最坏的情况下，还会造成生命损失。在系统设计和管理期间，更好地规划和处理可用性需求的知识和设计方法将直接影响产品和系统的质量，每个人所依赖的系统的安全性，并降低支持关键基础设施的成本。本科生、研究生和工业专业的学生也将从众多大学和工业短期课程中插入的教育模块中受益。

The objective of this research award is to develop a new methodology that uses an availability requirement as an input to the process of determining the optimal design and management of a system. Availability is the ability of a service or a system to be functional when it is requested for use or operation. Availability depends on an item's reliability (how often it fails) and maintainability (how efficiently it can be restored when it does fail). Availability is a significant issue for many systems including: ATM machines, point-of-sale systems, medical equipment, wind farms, military systems and airlines. For these safety, mission, and infrastructure critical systems, customers are often interested in buying the availability of a system through 'availability contracts' instead of actually buying the system itself. This research will develop a design for availability methodology applicable to single and multiple design parameters, perform model verification, integrate the model with life cycle cost analyses, and apply the model to logistics and reliability parameters, and within Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) environments. If successful, this research will provide a significant new capability to: a) perform real-time pro-active availability analysis; b) determine requirements 'flow down' to supply chains; and c) perform pro-active reliability versus logistics tradeoffs, and assess the cost and resources required to deliver and support systems subject to availability contracts. Failure to maintain the availability of systems can result in enormous costs and, in the worst cases, the loss of life. Better knowledge and design methods for planning and dealing with availability requirements during system design and management will directly impact the quality of products and systems, the safety of systems everyone depends on and reduce the costs of supporting critical infrastructure. Undergraduate, graduate and industry students will also benefit from educational modules inserted into numerous university and industry short courses.