SIFCTE  is a project funded from national  budget by “Ministry of Education” – UEFISCDI, within the frame of programme PNCDI 2.
The reliability of power production in thermal plants is a key issue at present, considering the economic and social implications incurred by the accidental interruptions in power supply. We consider that currently it is necessary to fully understand the consequences of a fault operation of the protection/reliability systems, either by a false drive with negative consequences on meeting the consumers’ needs according to the contracting delivery clauses, or by inaction, with considerable material losses, possible human losses, and harmful effects upon the environment.
The thermal power plants need more and more flexibility, availability and reliability for various operating states. The technological units in thermal power plants (boilers, turbines, feed electro-pumps, air or flue gas fans, coal mills, etc.) may reach states close to own mechanical limits and hence they have to be efficiently protected against existing potential vital risks. Therefore, reliability is a crucial issue in thermal power plant operation.
The project will define the main types of dangers for the equipment and outfit in such a power plant, that have to be taken into account upon designing the protection/reliability systems based on programmable electronic technology.
The project proposes to start from defining the stages of the lifetime cycle for a protection/reliability system for a thermal power plant and continue to carry out a hazard analysis and technological risk evaluation, defining the reliability functions, identifying the optimal level of reliability integrity (PFD=probability of failure on demand), carrying out the physical functional model for a thermal power plant of average complexity, tested, modular, configurable, scalable to include the application software according to the reliability requirements defined at first, the model experimentation and demonstrating its functionality and usefulness. The definition of the lifetime cycle stages will include research activities destined to clearly define all the necessary stages brought about by carrying out a system likely to lead to obtaining a maximum reliability (the conceptual designing of the process, hazard analysis and risk evaluation, detail design, equipment execution, testing maintenance, change permit state, reliability management elements).
The hazard analysis and risk evaluation are performed by using a quantitative method and will be grounded on a set of reliability functions specific of the process. The basic document that will be generated will be the cause/effect diagram that will include almost all the uncoupling functions resulted to be necessary upon the occurrence of a cause with a high degree of danger. A data collection activity likely to continue the probable frequencies of dangerous events occurrence is included in the project. According to the value of the possible consequences they will issue a reliability integrity level requirement (SIL) necessary to obtain by the programmable protection/security system provided to be carried out in the detail stages on the hardware and software side.The designing stages will include self-diagnosis functions specific of the equipment regarding its permanent capacity of carrying out functions.

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