Reliability and Maintenance of Transport Equipment

Transport equipment is in general a mechanical system, growing in size, capacity and complexity in order to accommodate continuous development of transport. It is essential to ensure sufficient safety, serviceability and durability of the equipment at the reduced cost in order to maintain the effectiveness of the transport system. This belongs to the research context of system reliability. Typically, a transport equipment consists of multiple subsystems or components with different function, and they would fail in different failure modes with different mechanism behind. Contributed by various non-destructive techniques ( NDTs), online sensor system and data analytics, potential failure of the equipment (fault, defect, damage) could be detected, predicted and mitigated in such a way that the occurrence of a catastrophic accident would be prevented, although with some extent of uncertainty caused by, i.e., the sensitivity of NDTs en sensors, environmental noise, etc. Upon the detection of a fault(or damage), a follow-up maintenance strategy shall be made in order to determine whether, when, where and how to repair/maintain the equipment, constrained by available budget, facilities and resources, etc.

The overall objective of the course is to prepare engineering graduates with an in-depth knowledge of system reliability, maintainability and availability. A series of modules will be given covering the fundamental theory embedded in the reliability and maintenance of transport equipment. Application of the theory in practice will be exemplified and practised through in-class exercises and discussion, weekly assignments and final case study. A few guest lectures will be introduced to demonstrate the implication of system reliability in the operation and maintenance of the transport equipment and the infrastructure.