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ReliaSoft’s BlockSim software provides a comprehensive and flexible platform to model systems and processes using reliability block diagrams (RBDs) or fault tree analysis. An extensive array of RBD configurations and fault tree gates and events are supported, including advanced capabilities to model complex configurations, load sharing, standby redundancy, phases and duty cycles.
Using the exact system reliability function and/or discrete event simulation, BlockSim supports a wide variety of analyses for both repairable and non-repairable systems that will be of use to both product designers and asset managers. This includes reliability, maintainability, availability, optimum reliability allocation, throughput, maintenance planning, life cycle costs and other analyses.
With the release of Version 8, BlockSim has been integrated into the ground-breaking new Synthesis Platform®, which offers reliability practitioners the best of both worlds: analysis tools that are optimized to fully meet the individual user's needs for a particular set of reliability engineering methodologies, plus integration into a shared repository that is accessible by multiple users throughout the organization and facilitates integration between all Synthesis-enabled software tools (Synthesis Elements). This powerful new platform makes it feasible to more effectively leverage and integrate the information from different types of reliability activities throughout the organization.
This topic provides a brief introduction to the Synthesis Platform along with summaries of the main features in BlockSim. It also provides a list of the most significant new features and capabilities that have been added in Version 8. The topic is organized as follows:
This section provides a brief introduction to the Synthesis Platform as it relates to using BlockSim. The Synthesis Platform booklet that accompanies this application contains a more comprehensive discussion, along with some practical examples that demonstrate the new analysis integration capabilities.
All Synthesis-enabled applications offer centralized data storage that allows multiple users to work cooperatively on analysis projects. As described in Working in Synthesis, you can choose which database platform will provide the back-end data storage for each Synthesis repository.
A Standard Repository is easy to create and maintain without any special IT infrastructure or support, but there are limitations to the amount of data it can store and the number of users who can access the database simultaneously.
An Enterprise Repository requires implementation of Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle (which requires separate licensing, support and maintenance), but it is a more robust platform that can store much more analysis information in the same database and supports access by many more simultaneous users.
For all enterprise databases, and when you have enabled login security for standard databases, authorized users will be able to create and maintain user accounts that determine which analyses and capabilities each individual user has permission to access. You can use the basic security groups that have been predefined in the software or customize the access permissions to meet the specific needs of your organization.
Tip: Working with a database-driven, multi-user application such as BlockSim 8 is a bit different from working with other types of software that you may be familiar with (such as Microsoft Excel or previous versions of BlockSim). For example, changes are saved automatically while you are updating the analysis (e.g., whenever you click OK or navigate away from a cell in a table or worksheet). In addition, you must be diligent about storing backups and performing adequate database maintenance to guard against data loss or corruption. Specific recommendations are provided in Backups and Database Maintenance: Protecting Your Data.
The new Synthesis Platform offers a unique solution to the problem of integrating different types of reliability information without sacrificing the power and flexibility of each individual analysis tool. From the individual user’s perspective, your interaction with each software product will be similar to your experience with previous versions — a full-featured tool that has been carefully designed to meet your needs for all aspects of the analysis methodology. However, from the overall reliability program perspective, multiple users will now have the ability to access the same centralized data repository from any Synthesis Element and thereby share commonly needed resources between applications and analyses (such as the model that describes a component’s failure behavior, the description of a particular maintenance strategy or the reliability-wise configuration of a system).
As described in the Resources topic, this integration is facilitated primarily through Synthesis resources that can be published from one type of analysis and utilized in other analyses where they may be relevant. When a resource needs to be updated in response to new information, the change can be reflected automatically in all analyses that rely upon it. Specifically for BlockSim, the Synthesis Platform gives you the ability to:
Use models and/or universal reliability definitions (URDs) that were created in Weibull++, ALTA, Xfmea or RCM++ to define the reliability and/or maintenance characteristics of the blocks in your BlockSim RBDs and fault trees.
Publish any RBD or fault tree analysis as a model that can be used to define reliability characteristics in Xfmea/RCM++ or another BlockSim analysis.
Work with system configuration and failure mode data from Xfmea or RCM++ as RBDs or fault trees in BlockSim.
One of the many benefits of having multiple users working from the same centralized data repository is the opportunity to use a common interface for posting announcements and tracking the completion of assigned actions.
All Synthesis-enabled applications offer the My Portal interface, which facilitates the dissemination of Messages directed either to all system users or only to specific users/groups. My Portal can also be used to display the Actions that you are involved with, either as the person responsible for completing the assignment, the person who created the record or a person who simply needs to be kept informed about the progress.
If desired, the Synthesis repository can be configured to enable E-mail Notifications that serve to alert members of the team when a message or action that they’re involved with is created or updated. Now in Version 8, you also have the option to send actions to your calendar in Microsoft Outlook.
This section provides a brief overview of the major analysis capabilities that BlockSim facilitates.
BlockSim's interface for reliability block diagram (RBD) creation is the most intuitive, flexible and polished in the industry. Easy drag-and-drop techniques allow you to build RBDs for the simplest to the most complex systems. The software supports all of the following reliability-wise configuration types:
Simple Series and Parallel: Simple series configurations assume that the failure of any one component causes the system to fail; while simple parallel configurations assume that the system continues to operate if any path succeeds.
Complex: Complex configurations require a more advanced analytical treatment than a simple combination of series and parallel blocks. Such configurations may be required for analyzing network systems, competing failure modes, etc.
k-out-of-n: Node blocks can be used to define k-out-of-n redundancy, where a specified number of paths leading to the node must succeed in order for the system to succeed.
Load Sharing: In a load sharing configuration, each block supports a percentage of the total load.
Standby Redundancy: In a standby configuration, standby blocks are available to become active under specified circumstances. BlockSim can model hot, warm or cold standby configurations.
Mirrored Blocks: Mirrored blocks allow you to put the exact same component in more than one location within the diagram. These blocks can be used, for example, to simulate bi-directional paths in a communications network.
Multi Blocks: Multi blocks help you to save time (and space in the diagram) by using a single block to represent multiple identical components configured in series or parallel.
Subdiagrams: BlockSim offers a virtually unlimited capability to link diagrams as components in other diagrams, which provides a variety of opportunities to encapsulate one analysis into another.
Publish Diagrams as Models: Now in Version 8, we have drastically increased BlockSim’s capability for encapsulation by allowing users to publish an analyzed diagram as a model that can be used in any other Synthesis analysis (e.g., in another BlockSim diagram or in the reliability/maintainability calculations supported by Xfmea or RCM++).
BlockSim's fault tree analysis interface supports all of the traditional gates and event symbols that are applicable to system reliability and related analyses. In addition, only BlockSim allows you to expand the modeling capabilities with additional logic gates that represent load sharing and standby redundancy configurations. The available event symbols include Basic, Undeveloped, Trigger, Resultant and Conditional, while the supported fault tree diagram gates include:
Voting gates
Inhibit gates
Priority AND and Sequence Enforcing gates
Load Sharing and Standby gates (exclusively in BlockSim)
Your BlockSim projects can contain both fault trees and reliability block diagrams together in the same analysis workspace. You can also 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 to an RBD.
As described in Analytical Diagrams, BlockSim uses an exclusive algorithm pioneered by ReliaSoft to algebraically compute the exact system reliability function for even the most complex systems. This makes it possible to perform a number of system reliability investigations analytically, without resorting to simulation. Some useful analytical results include:
System Reliability Metrics and Plots: You can use the convenient Quick Calculation Pad (QCP) and plot sheets to calculate and visualize key system reliability metrics such as Reliability, Probability of Failure, Reliable Life (i.e., time for a given reliability), BX% Life (i.e., time for a given unreliability), Mean Life and Failure Rate.
Minimal Cut Sets: For each analytical diagram, BlockSim identifies the unique combinations of component failure that can cause system failure. These minimal cut sets can be used to understand the structural vulnerability of a system.
Reliability Importance Measures: BlockSim provides a set of "Reliability Importance" plots designed to show the relative importance of each component with respect to the overall reliability of a system. The software also offers "FRED Reports," which provide an intuitive graphical presentation of key reliability metrics, with color-coding to identify the ones that may be critical for system improvement.
As described in Allocation Analysis, BlockSim 8 also introduces a new tool dedicated to helping you find the most effective component Reliability Allocation to meet a system reliability goal. The new centralized utility makes it easier than ever to enter and manage all of the information required to use the innovative Cost Optimized allocation method that’s still available exclusively in BlockSim. This feature now also supports Equal and Weighted reliability allocation methods.
As described in Simulation Diagrams, BlockSim's simulation capability for reliability, availability maintainability and supportability (RAMS) analysis of repairable systems is more flexible and realistic than ever. For a new system, product engineers can use the simulation results to improve and optimize the design and make projections about how the system may perform in the field. For existing equipment, asset performance managers, maintenance planners, risk/safety analysts and many other professionals can use the simulation results for maintenance resource planning, throughput estimates, life cycle cost analysis and much more.
When you utilize simulation, the analysis can consider:
The restoration factor that captures the impact of repairs on the future reliability of the component (i.e., as good as new, as bad as old or partial restoration).
Duty cycles for components that experience a different stress load than the rest of the system (e.g., a component that may run for only 10 minutes out of every hour that the system operates, or a component that works twice as hard during a particular phase of the overall mission).
The expected downtime associated with corrective or scheduled maintenance (defined either as fixed durations or based on probabilistic distributions).
The costs and logistical constraints associated with allocating the personnel (repair crews) and materials (spare parts) required to perform maintenance when needed.
Components that will receive maintenance at the same time (e.g., if one component in a maintenance group fails, this might trigger preventive maintenance for other components while the system is already down).
BlockSim’s simulations generate a wide variety of results at the system and/or component level. This includes Uptime/Downtime, Mean Time to First Failure (MTTF), Availability, Reliability, Number of Failures, Number of PMs/Inspections, etc. You can use these results for a wide variety of applications, including (but not limited to):
Choosing the most effective maintenance strategy based on considerations of safety, cost and/or availability.
Determining the optimum preventive maintenance (PM) interval.
Managing the spare parts inventory based on considerations of cost, utilization rate, supply bottlenecks, etc.
Identifying the components that have the biggest impact on availability (downtime).
BlockSim’s Throughput Analysis can be used to identify bottlenecks, optimize resource allocation and otherwise improve the processing efficiency of the system. The software allows you to determine how the simulation will allocate the processed output (e.g., parts manufactured in an assembly line or volume of oil processed in a pipeline) across the paths defined in the diagram. The software also allows you to specify how the backlog will be processed. When the throughput varies over time (e.g., if the flow from an oil well drops over time as the reserves are depleted), BlockSim provides a choice of models (linear, exponential or power) to describe the time-dependent variability.
Every successful organization understands that it is critical to understand the Life Cycle Costs associated with their equipment. Whenever applicable, BlockSim allows you to specify the direct and/or indirect costs associated with the maintenance strategies that you have defined, including costs related to downtime, maintenance crews, spares, etc. This yields a wide array of simulation results that are instrumental in performing realistic life cycle cost assessments.
You can use reliability phase diagrams 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, while others (such as engines) may experience a higher failure rate during these phases due to higher stress. To model these types of situations in BlockSim, you can simply create RBDs to describe the system’s operation during each distinct phase and then use a phase diagram to describe how the system proceeds through the phases over time.
In addition, the software uses maintenance phases to model scenarios in which a system goes directly to maintenance under specified conditions. For example, if a failure during the taxi phase sends an aircraft in for maintenance, it will start over from the beginning of the mission once repaired — not from the middle of the taxi phase where it was when the failure occurred, as other RBD analyses have been forced to assume. This flexibility provides a tremendous leap forward in the ability to simulate system operation more realistically.
BlockSim makes it easy to create a complete array of plots and charts to present your analysis graphically. The Plot Setup allows you to completely customize the "look and feel" of plot graphics while the RS Draw metafile graphics editor provides the option to insert text, draw objects or mark particular points on plot graphics. You can save your plots in a variety of graphic file formats (*.jpg, *.gif, *.png or *.wmf) for use in other documents.
Overlay Plots (formerly called "MultiPlots") allow you to plot the results from multiple data sets together in the same plot. This can be an effective visual tool for many different applications, such as comparing different analyses (e.g., Design A vs. Design B) or demonstrating the effects of a design change (e.g., Before vs. After).
As described in Reports, all Synthesis-enabled applications offer several powerful tools for custom analysis and reporting. If you want to create a custom analysis that integrates results from different diagrams, Version 8 now provides a choice of using an Analysis Workbook (with functionality similar to Microsoft Excel®) or a new Word Report Template (with functionality similar to Microsoft Word®).
Both tools allow you to use the Function Wizard to insert calculated results based on selected data sheet(s). With the workbooks and report templates, you also have the option to configure the functions to use generically numbered "data sources" instead of named diagrams. This makes it easy to use the same template again for different analyses.
With the release of Version 8, BlockSim offers a completely updated user interface that has many new and enhanced features. Some of the major additions and enhancements in Version 8 include:
New Synthesis Platform and Centralized Data Storage: With the release of Version 8, BlockSim analyses are stored in a centralized database that supports simultaneous access by multiple users and shares relevant reliability information between ReliaSoft’s Synthesis-enabled software tools. To give just a couple examples of the many integration opportunities, you can now:
Seamlessly integrate Weibull++ and/or ALTA analyses to set the properties for a reliability block diagram or fault tree in BlockSim, then automatically update the diagram if the underlying data analysis changes.
Work with system configuration and failure mode data from Xfmea or RCM++ analyses as RBDs or fault trees in BlockSim.
Reuse Reliability/Maintenance Definitions: The new universal reliability definition (URD) capabilities in Version 8 make it easier than ever to manage the component reliability and maintenance characteristics required for system analyses. Now you can share the same resources (e.g., failure model, maintenance strategy, availability of repair crew/spare parts, etc.) with all users who have access to the project, and directly link the URD with other analyses performed in Weibull++, ALTA, Xfmea and RCM++.
New Gates for Fault Trees: The fault tree analysis modeling capabilities have been expanded in Version 8. The following gates have been added: NOT, NAND, NOR, Priority AND, Sequence Enforcing.
New Interface for Optimum Reliability Allocation: BlockSim has always offered a unique capability to utilize feasibility and cost models to calculate the optimum component reliability allocation to meet a system reliability goal. Now in Version 8 we have made it easier than ever to enter and manage the information required for these calculations, and we’ve added support for two new allocation methods.
Calculating the Optimum Replacement Time: The ability to calculate the optimum replacement time provides a powerful opportunity to reduce costs while maximizing uptime. In Version 8, BlockSim makes it easy to enter and manage the information required for these calculations. Now you can perform the calculations for any number of blocks with a single click of the mouse, and the software also provides the option to find a common time that’s optimized for selected blocks (i.e., packaged maintenance tasks).
State Change Triggers: BlockSim 8 now offers the ability to create state change triggers that activate or deactivate a block under certain conditions during the simulation. This provides increased modeling flexibility for standby configurations and other situations when you may need to divert the simulation onto an alternate path when a particular event occurs.
Automatic Conversion for Time Values Entered in Units: All Synthesis-enabled applications now allow you to define conversion factors for entering time values in different units. To give just one example, you can now define the component failure models in terms of hours but then use the QCP to calculate the system reliability for a year of operation — the software performs the conversion automatically based on the multipliers specified for the repository.
Redesigned QCP: The Quick Calculation Pad (QCP) has been updated and redesigned in Version 8. The new interface provides a "Calculation Log" that works like the paper roll in an adding machine, allowing you to record the results from a series of different calculations and then copy/paste the results as needed.
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