An application of non-homogeneous Poisson point processes to the reliability analysis of service water pumps

The purpose of this paper is to present an application of the non-homogeneous Poisson point process to the study of the rates of occurrence of failures (ROCOF) when they are time dependent, and the times between failures are neither independent nor identically distributed. The application concerns the analysis of the reliability of service water pumps of a typical PWR nuclear power plant. These pumps are repairable components, in general. Standard statistical techniques, such as the maximum likelihood parameter estimation and linear regression analysis are applied. As a conclusion, the non-homogeneous Poisson process is an adequate tool for analyzing time-dependent ROCOFs for repairable component failure data. It can be used for surveying aging mechanisms during the operation life of repairable systems and also for the assessment of maintenance policies effectiveness.