Reliability analysis of pumping systems

A new methodology is presented for the reliability analysis of pumping stations for water-supply systems. The methodology considers both mechanical failure and hydraulic failure and models the available capacity of a pumping station as a continuous-time Markov process, using bivariate analysis and conditional probability approaches in a frequency and duration analysis framework. A supply model, a demand model, and a margin model are developed and used to compute the expected duration of a failure, expected unserved demand due to a failure, expected number of failures in the period of study, expected total duration of failures in the period of study, and expected total unserved demand in the period of study. Five example applications are used to illustrate the new methodology. This methodology can be used to analyze existing pumping systems and to design new systems.