System dynamics modeling and simulation of power plant maintenance process considering safety improvement

Multiple variables and subsystems increase the complexity of safety-based maintenance modeling in large systems, including power plants. This paper is modeling the power plant maintenance system by considering safety indicators. Then it simulates and analyzes the behavior of the designed model for a numerical sample. Regarding the literature review, a causal loop diagram of the maintenance system for power plant was designed and a safety subsystem was added to the model, based on the experts’ opinion, and finally the stock and flow diagram was formulated using AnyLogic software. The model was simulated in three scenarios including scenario one, training, scenario two, adding new equipment in the seventh year and scenario three, a combination of adding new equipment and training. The first simulation confirmed that increasing the training rate reduced the breakdown rate and equipment failure rate up to the sixth year, as well as reducing the accident rate and cost and increasing safety until the fifth year. Current costs increased. The second indicated that the addition of eight new equipment in the seventh year will improve the model up to 15 years later, and the amount of profit from the second year to the fifteenth year is more than scenario one and three. The combination of scenarios one and two, the optimal scenario, causes a greater amount of safety, a lower failure rate from the sixth year onward, a lower accident rate and cost, and a lower current cost from the fifth year onward.