RBD’s simply don’t work well with electrical and HVAC systems. RBD stands for Reliability Block Diagram and they are used to model really complex systems for which you can’t do a calculation. Before Analyst Enterprise was available I used RBDs extensively and found that you had to make so many simplifying assumptions you were never really sure how valid your final model was. To make matters worse, a block diagram (RBD) seldom looks anything like the system you’re trying to model. But… what if you could build a reliability model by simply drawing a familiar single-line diagram of the electrical or HVAC system?
Analyst Enterprise does just that. Equipped with a library of familiar electrical and HVAC components, you simply draw a one-line diagram. We refer to it as an SLRD – Single Line Reliability Diagram. To test and verify your model, you watch it working while interacting with it visually. When you’re satisfied the model does what you want and has the appropriate failure data, a reliability estimate is only a mouse click away.
The benefit of this approach in time-saving alone is considerable. The effort taken to draw even a complex single-line diagram using Analyst Enterprise can usually be measured in tens of minutes. RBDs on the other hand can take days and weeks to get all of the functionality you might need. With Analyst Enterprise the behavior of each component has been pre-programmed to match the real world counterpart. A rectifier behaves like a real-world rectifier having ac in, dc out, voltage settings, efficiency value and so on.
One of the most difficult things to model is a battery. As RBDs are a logical diagram, they simply cannot appropriately model a component that is inherently analogue in its operation such as a battery. The usual approach within RBD software is to use a static one-shot time element which falls short in very subtle ways as you’ll see in this video.
Analyst Enterprise is used to open up areas of investigation that are simply too difficult to attempt with RBDs.
Analyst Enterprise is the only program available on the market that will allow you to model power system and HVAC reliability from a single line diagram.
Download a trial version of Analyst Enterprise and a copy of the project above at the following address and draw your own conclusions.