A probabilistic approach to performance analysis of various subsystems in an Indian sugar plant

The performance analysis of the evaporation and crystallization unit of a sugar plant is explored in the current study. It is an important unit requiring more concentration to increase its performance. The probabilistic approach is used to formulate the transition diagram of the evaporation and crystallization unit. Then, the first-order differential equations are obtained using the mnemonic rule and further solved recursively. The availability model of the concerned unit is obtained at all full and reduced capacity states. The failure and repair rate values are placed into the developed availability model to determine the decision matrices. It gives the availability levels of different subsystems of the concerned unit. The criticalities of subsystems are based on availability levels mentioned in decision matrices to determine the maintenance priorities. It is observed that the evaporator subsystem is most critical in which the availability increased from 0.7260 to 0.8888, i.e. (16.20%). In contrast, the sugar grader is the least crucial subsystem, with availability enhanced from 0.8740 to 0.8893 (i.e., 1.53%). The results show that the evaporator subsystem must be given top priority, and the sugar grader subsystem must be given the least priority from the maintenance outlook.