Sensitivity analysis on the probabilistic maintenance model of circuit breaker

Catastrophic failures of circuit breakers result in high cost associated with loss of load and component replacement. The probability of such failures can be reduced using maintenance procedures. Probabilistic models are needed to estimate failure rate, perform cost benefit analysis and arrive at an optimal maintenance strategy that balances the cost of maintenance with reduction in cost of failures. A probabilistic maintenance model, introduced earlier for circuit breakers, is implemented in this paper. The model parameters are mean time in each stage, inspection rate of each stage, and probabilities of transition from one stage to others. Sensitivity analysis of model parameters is done to establish cost-effective maintenance process. The analysis covers mean time to first failure, probability of failure, maintenance cost, inspection cost, and failure cost. Simulation results are presented.