RAMP 5.0 User Manual

RAMP 5.
0
User Manual
Reliability, Availability and Maintainability of

Process Systems
Copyright 2008 by Atkins Limited
RAMP Version 5.0 Manual version 1.00
Manual Issue Date 28th July 2007
Trademarks
Microsoft Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other product

names, corporate names or titles within this document may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of other companies. These are recognised as such, and are mentioned only in an
explanatory manner to the user's benefit and with no intention of infringement.
Farnham, July 2007
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RAMP 5.0 - A Quick Reference Guide
Creating a New Model:
Choose New from the File menu
The outermost block of the Model is drawn on the screen and the system is given the default name New
System. The system block can now be converted to a group as follows:
Double-click the undefined system block to activate the Element Details dialogue box.
Click the Convert to Group button (or press <ALT><G>).
Enter a value for the number of elements to be included in the group and click OK.
Click the arrow to the right of the Group Type selection window to open the drop-down list box
and choose the group type from the list.
Distributions:
RAMP allows the user to select from five in-built distribution types for specifying element failure and repair
times and CMF occurrence times. In addition, the user can specify up to 30 ‘Empirical’ distributions of their
own (e.g. from actual failure time records).
Distribution Type Defining Parameters Uses

No Occurrence None Defining non-repairable elements or
making an element with constant q value.
Fixed Time of Occurrence Fixed Time to Failure or Repair Make events happen at predetermined
times (e.g. repair always takes 3 hours).
Weibull Characteristic Life and Shape Modelling increasing or decreasing failure
(or repair) rates.
Negative Exponential Mean Time Between Failures For data taken from generic sources or
for modelling at equipment level as
opposed to failure mode level.
Lognormal Median and Dispersion or 50 and Most repair times follow a lognormal. For
95 Percentile Points modular repair, Median = MART x 0.84
and Dispersion = 0.6, while for
component level repair, Median = MART
x 0.38 and Dispersion = 1.4
Element States:
Elements are the basic ‘building blocks of the RAMP PDD and each one has user specified failure, repair
and preventive maintenance characteristics. An element may be in one of five possible states and its ‘q’
value is determined by its state.
State Description ‘q’ Value

State 1 Undergoing preventive maintenance. q=0
State 2 Being Repaired following failure (including queuing for repair). q=0
State 3 Failed but undetected (a dormant failure). q=0
State 4 ‘Up’ and ‘Passive’ (available but currently not required). q=0
State 5 ‘Up’ and ‘Active’ (being used). q=Q
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Groups:
Eleven different group types are definable in RAMP. A group consists of a combination of elements and/or
groups in either series or parallel configurations.
Group Type Series/ ‘q’ Value Combination Rule Example Uses

Parallel
Minimum S qM = min[q1, q2, q3, ...qn] Performance is limited to the
capability of the worst component.
Active Redundant P qA = min[R, (q1+q2+q3+...+qn)] A number of components each
unless qA < C, then qA = 0 contributing to the total
performance.
Standby Redundant P As for Active Redundant Items not required to contribute to
the total performance.
Buffer S qB = q2 if buffer not empty Buffer storage in order to maintain
qB = min[q1, q2] if empty operation levels regardless of
fluctuations in output or failures.
Product S qP = q1 x q2 x q3 x ... x qn Cumulative effect of items restricting
performance to a proportion of
theoretical maximum.
Quotient S qQ = q1/q2 Availability of a system (ie the
capacity divided by the demand).
Greater Than S If q1 > q2 then qG = q1 To balance loads or compensate for
else qG = 0 failure by increasing output from
another sub-system.
Less Than S If q1 < q2 then qL = q1 As for Greater Than.
else qL = 0
Difference S qD = max[q1 - q2, 0] Monitoring lost production.
Equality S qE = q1 if q1 is outside range Non-linear relationship between the
qE = q2 if q1 is in defined range number of parallel items and their
total output.
Time Delay P If q1 = 0 then qT = 0 Stepwise approximation to the
After time T q1 > 0, qT = q1 gradual build-up in capacity of a
process plant following repair,
After further time T q1 is still > 0, shutdown or switching from the
qT = q1 + q2 standby to the active state.
After further time T q1 is still > 0,
qT = q1 + q2 +q3, etc
When using Standby groups, remember RAMP’s rules for placing items in the Active or Passive states.
These can be summarised as follows:
♦ Only sufficient elements are put in the Active state to meet the group’s specified rating. Elements
are taken in order of priority from the top of the group.
♦ The same element may appear in more than one Standby group. If a conflict arises, the program
will select the Active state.
♦ An element in a Standby group may appear in another non-Standby group. Here, the state of the
element is dictated solely by the requirements of the Standby group.
♦ Where a Standby group contains other groups, the Standby group works in a similar way.
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RAMP for Windows
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO RAMP FOR WINDOWS.......................................................................................... 7
What is the purpose of RAMP? .............................................................................................................. 7
Why use Monte Carlo Simulation? ......................................................................................................... 7
Input to RAMP - The Model .................................................................................................................... 7
Results Produced by RAMP ................................................................................................................... 8
Program Limits ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Conventions and Notations used in the Manual ..................................................................................... 8
Consultancy Services ............................................................................................................................. 9
GETTING STARTED WITH RAMP ......................................................................................................... 10
Checking your RAMP Package ............................................................................................................ 10
Hardware and Software Requirements ................................................................................................ 10
Licence Protection Device (dongle) ...................................................................................................... 10
Installing RAMP .................................................................................................................................... 10
Starting RAMP ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Online Help ........................................................................................................................................... 11
RAMP Customer Support Help Desk ................................................................................................... 11
CHAPTER 1 – BASIC SYSTEM DETAILS............................................................................................... 12
Elements and Groups ........................................................................................................................... 12
Elements and Q Values in the Model ................................................................................................... 13
Element States and Events .................................................................................................................. 13
Element Data ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Group Data ........................................................................................................................................... 15
Mission Data ......................................................................................................................................... 16
Other Model Data ................................................................................................................................. 17
CHAPTER 2 – BUILDING A RAMP MODEL............................................................................................ 19
Creating a Simple Model ...................................................................................................................... 19
Detailed Element Parameters............................................................................................................... 23
Detailed Group Parameters .................................................................................................................. 28
Further Editing Facilities ....................................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 3 – RAMP MISSION DATA .................................................................................................... 32
The Mission Data Form – General Information Tab ............................................................................. 32
The Mission Data Form – Rolling Averages Tab.................................................................................. 34
The Mission Data Form – Histograms Tab........................................................................................... 35
The Mission Data Form – Criticality Tab .............................................................................................. 36
Running the Simulation......................................................................................................................... 36
CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS OF THE SIMULATION ................................................................................... 38
Uses of RAMP Results ......................................................................................................................... 38
RAMP Files........................................................................................................................................... 38
RAMP Results Tables........................................................................................................................... 39
Histograms ........................................................................................................................................... 42
Rolling Averages................................................................................................................................... 44
Results Overlay View............................................................................................................................ 46
Text Files and Logs .............................................................................................................................. 48
CHAPTER 5 – MENU OPTIONS ............................................................................................................. 50
The File Menu....................................................................................................................................... 50
The Edit Menu ...................................................................................................................................... 52
The View Menu..................................................................................................................................... 54
The Data Menu ..................................................................................................................................... 57
The Simulation Menu............................................................................................................................ 61
The Results Menu................................................................................................................................. 61
The Validation Menu............................................................................................................................. 62
The Options Menu ................................................................................................................................ 64
The Help Menu ..................................................................................................................................... 67
Mouse and Keyboard Operations ......................................................................................................... 68
CHAPTER 6 – ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION ........................................................................................ 70
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The Simulation Process........................................................................................................................ 70
The Modelling Process ......................................................................................................................... 72
Model Development.............................................................................................................................. 73
Model Validation ................................................................................................................................... 75
CHAPTER 7 - RAMP MODELLING CONCEPTS .................................................................................... 77
The Model Diagram .............................................................................................................................. 77
Q Value................................................................................................................................................. 77
Flow and Flow Potential........................................................................................................................ 78
Time Units ............................................................................................................................................ 78
The Mission .......................................................................................................................................... 79
Element States ..................................................................................................................................... 79
Element Data ........................................................................................................................................ 80
Groups .................................................................................................................................................. 83
Common Mode Failures ....................................................................................................................... 84
CHAPTER 8 – CASE STUDIES............................................................................................................... 85
RAMP Case Study 1 - User Exercise.................................................................................................. 86
RAMP Case Study 2 - Compare Production with Demand - Quotient ................................................ 88
RAMP Case Study 3 - Compare Production with Demand - Difference ............................................. 89
RAMP Case Study 4 - Representing Profiles of Q Value Changing Over Time ................................. 90
RAMP Case Study 5 - Non-Linear Relationship of Number of Items and Output ............................... 93
RAMP Case Study 6 - Stacking Buffers in Series ............................................................................... 95
RAMP Case Study 7 - Delayed Impact of Failure on Flow.................................................................. 97
RAMP Case Study 8 - Availability of Waste Acceptance Function ..................................................... 99
RAMP Case Study 9 - Intermittent Flow Increase............................................................................. 100
RAMP Case Study 10 - Seasonal Changes ..................................................................................... 101
RAMP Case Study 11 - Complex Flow Distributions ........................................................................ 102
APPENDIX A – GROUP TYPES............................................................................................................ 104
APPENDIX B – DISTRIBUTIONS.......................................................................................................... 110
APPENDIX C – SOURCES OF FAILURE DATA................................................................................... 114
APPENDIX D – MODELLING LIMITS.................................................................................................... 116
APPENDIX E – TROUBLE SHOOTING ................................................................................................ 117
APPENDIX F – RESULTS AND OUTPUT FILES.................................................................................. 118
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Introduction
INTRODUCTION TO RAMP FOR WINDOWS

What is the purpose of RAMP?
RAMP is a Monte Carlo simulation computer program for the assessment of the Reliability, Availability
and Maintainability characteristics of Process systems – hence the name. It is a very flexible tool,
capable of modelling a wide range of process plant and generative systems. It allows the user to
examine the operational capability of systems in situations beyond the scope of manual or analytical
calculation.
Modelling using RAMP may be conducted to optimise the design and support (e.g. maintenance and
spares) of a plant, to examine the likely Availability or Productivity when sizing the plant or setting
contract terms for the output or to conduct 'what if' studies. RAMP will allow the user to quantify the
plant Availability or Productivity using whatever measure is most appropriate to the particular case.
Why use Monte Carlo Simulation?

Simulation using Monte Carlo methods allows the operational capability of complex plants to be
examined, including the interaction of many complicating factors such as queuing for repairs and spares,
common mode failures, the effects of preventive maintenance, changes in plant configuration, changes
in plant loading (e.g. demand) etc.
Results from simulations using RAMP allow the user to study the likely range of plant operational
capability as well as average values. It may be important in risk studies to know that for one year in fifty
the Availability could be as low as 82%, even though on average it is over 95%.
Simulation with RAMP has many advantages over other forms of assessment, and these include:
The visual representation of the system on screen gives better 'physical visibility' of a situation than
complex sets of equations, aiding validation and interpretation of output.
The RAMP model offers scope for easy development to examine the system in greater detail or different
‘what if' studies. The 'Top-Down' approach for model development is particularly suited to refining the
model as more design detail becomes available.
The size of models which can be handled by RAMP means that it can be used for studies beyond the
scope of manual and analytical methods.
Input to RAMP - The Model

In order to simulate a process, the program needs three types of data:
• A representation of the system, which takes the visual form of a model diagram, in which the
contribution of elements and groups of elements to the performance of the entire system is
defined. The diagram is a failure logic model of the system, the basic building blocks of which
are the system elements. The diagram describes how failure and repair characteristics of these
elements and groups of elements relate to each other and to the system as a whole.
• The reliability and repair parameters of the individual elements of the system and the capacity
(Q) value of each element. Each element possesses specific failure and repair characteristics
and can be in an 'up' condition - active and functioning - or in a 'down' condition - either failed,
being maintained or dormant, depending on the type of group.
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• Information on the conditions under which the simulation is to be run, i.e., the duration of a
mission and the number of missions to be simulated.
Results Produced by RAMP

RAMP provides results for each element (corresponding to individual equipment items), as well as
groups of elements (which represent subsystems or the overall system). From the capacity of the
elements at any time, the performance values are calculated for each group using a set of defined rules.
The results are given as average values over all simulated missions and include:
• The average q value - the processing or generative capacity - of each group.
• The number of times per mission that each element was in a particular state (active, failed under
repair, failed undetected etc).
• Rolling average performance figures, if required.
• Criticality figures - the amount that each element has contributed to the overall loss of capacity.
The results enable the user to identify major factors influencing the overall system performance and
reliability.
Program Limits
Certain program limits apply to RAMP for Windows, for instance the maximum numbers of elements,
groups, element types, spares types, etc. that can be defined. These program limits are detailed in
Appendix D.
Conventions and Notations used in the Manual

Hierarchy for Section Titles
The head of this page shows the style for main section titles within chapters, and such titles appear in
the contents listing. Beneath them, the sequence for titles is light blue, (as for this section), then dark
blue, then black, as shown below.
Third Level is Dark Blue

Fourth Level is Black
Lists
Lists or step-by-step instructions are identified by round bullets, thus:
• Click on the Delete button.
• Click on OK to delete or Cancel to abandon.
Bold Indicates either buttons on forms as above, or menu options, for example:
Choose Open from the File Menu.
Keyboard Input
Where certain keyboard actions are necessary to execute a command, the manual will use the following
conventions:
<Key> The designated key should be pressed.
<Key 1>< Key 2> Key 1 is pressed and held down and then Key 2 is pressed. For example,
<Alt><C> means you press and hold down the Alt key, then press the C key and
then release both keys.
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Consultancy Services
Atkins Advantage Business Group (AABG) offers a service to enable you to obtain the maximum benefit
from RAMP in the shortest possible time. This includes both on-site and in-house user training as well
as the complete design and production of individual RAMP models.
In addition, AABG provides support on a wide range of reliability, availability, maintainability, logistic
support and safety services, covering both hardware and software systems. Further details on these
services can be provided on request – ring +44 1252 738500 and ask for Chris Barber, or email
Chris.Barber@atkinsglobal.com
9
Getting
Started
GETTING STARTED WITH RAMP

This section covers the installation and first use of RAMP. It is assumed that the user is already familiar
with standard Windows operations such as use of the mouse, selecting items from a menu etc.
Checking your RAMP Package

The installation package should contain a CD, a RAMP manual, a licence agreement, and a dongle (a
small rectangular plastic object) which plugs into the parallel port of your PC. If any of these items are
missing please contact Atkins Advantage Business Group in the UK or your local distributor.
Hardware and Software Requirements

To use RAMP you will need the following hardware and software:
Component Recommended Minimum

Computer Pentium 133 or above 80486-based
RAM 32 MB or above 8 MB
Monitor SVGA 800 x 600 or above VGA 640 x 480
Operating System Windows 95 or above Windows 95 or above
For installation of the software you will need at least 25 MB of free space on your hard drive. Operation
of the software requires the use of a Microsoft Windows-compatible mouse or similar pointing device.
Licence Protection Device (dongle)

The program will not run unless the licence protection device is correctly installed on your computer.
This device is a simple plug which is inserted into the LPT1 printer port of your computer. If a printer is
already connected to this port, insert the printer plug into the rear of the device. This will have no effect
on output to the printer.
Installing RAMP
UK Users
Prior to installing RAMP save any current work and close any open applications (including mail or
Internet applications). Then:
• Insert the RAMP CD in your CD drive.

• The installation will start automatically, if not:
• Run the setup file on drive D: (or the appropriate drive for your CD).
If necessary, specify the directory where RAMP should be installed.
During the installation, the RAMP installation process checks for the presence of the correct system files
before proceeding. If you receive an error message stating that certain system files are out of date,
10
allow the RAMP installation program to update these files and then restart the installation process from
the beginning.
Starting RAMP
Once installation is complete, you should have a new program group available – click on the RAMP
Builder icon to start the program. You will be prompted to enter your name and company details to
register the software.
After the introductory screen has been displayed (the logo remains visible for about 5 seconds, or can be
cleared by clicking on it), the Builder is loaded ready for you to construct a model. If RAMP fails to start,
displays a dongle error message or refuses to save or load correctly, please contact Technical Support.
Online Help
Use the commands on the RAMP Help menu to find online information about RAMP. For detailed
information on the Help menu options, choose Search for Help On... from the Help menu. For basic
information on the Windows Help system itself, choose How to Use Help... from the Help menu.
The RAMP Help system is context-sensitive. When you press F1, the Help sections relevant to the
current form or menu item will be displayed.
RAMP Customer Support Help Desk

The Help Desk offers phone or email support, through which all registered users of RAMP can request
technical information, obtain help with using the product, report faults and submit requests for
enhancements and modifications. In the UK, call 01252 738500 during normal working hours and ask
for the RAMP Help Desk. We may also be contacted by fax (01252 899699) or email
(chris.barber@atkinsglobal.com) at any time.
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Chapter
1
CHAPTER 1 – BASIC SYSTEM DETAILS
Elements and Groups
This chapter provides an introduction to some RAMP concepts and should be read before
constructing any models.
RAMP models are made up of elements and groups. The elements carry failure, repair and
capacity data and the groups provide the model structure. If an element is 'up' then it has a
capacity Q which is set by the user. If it is 'down' for any reason it has a capacity of zero.
The amount of time that an element spends either up or down is governed by a number of
factors including the failure distribution specified, the repair distribution, whether maintenance
resources are available to fix it when it goes wrong, and so forth. The contribution that an
element makes to the system as a whole is more complex and can be affected by the
following factors:
Whether or not the element or group is up and running.
• The output of the element or group in its normal 'up' condition.
• The frequency with which the element goes into a 'down' condition, i.e., is in need of
maintenance or repair.
• The length of time the element or group is in a 'down' condition which depends on:
the availability of repair trades,
the availability of spare parts,
storage levels (if defined),
the state of other elements (if required),
the state of other groups (if required),
the duration of prescribed maintenance schedules,
the repair time of the element,
the logistic delay in carrying out the repair.
• An element's dependency for function on the correct function of one or more other
elements.
Most models, however, don not need all this to be specified and a simple model can be
constructed and checked very quickly. To do this, two main types of information are required:
• Element Information - Failure and repair details – e.g. how often a pump fails and how soon
it is repaired.
• Configuration Information - What equipment there is, how process works, what happens if
an item fails.
The 'Configuration information' must be translated into a group structure which RAMP
understands. RAMP provides a wide variety of group types, which can contain elements, other
groups or a mixture of both. Groups can contain elements in series or in parallel. In a series
group, failure of any single element will bring the whole group down, whereas a parallel group
will often have some redundancy and single failures won't lead to failure of the group as a
whole.
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Elements and Q Values in the Model
Elements are the basic blocks of the model and each element has failure and repair
characteristics, plus a capacity, Q. If an element is 'up', its performance is equal to Q. When
the element is 'down', it has a performance value of zero.
Although only one 'up' state exists where performance = Q, RAMP has four possible states for
each element where performance (also known as q ) = 0. Three of these are 'down' states
(repair, maintenance, dormant failure) and one is a passive 'up' state.
Every time an event occurs in the model, the q values are calculated for each sub-group
upwards until q values have been calculated for all groups and, ultimately, for the system as a
whole, represented by the outermost group.
Element States and Events

The simulation of a system is done by generating, and calculating the effects of, simulated
'events' which occur according to the element data in the model. An 'event' is anything which
can change the state of a model or a group.
The possible states for an element are as follows:

• State 1 Undergoing preventive maintenance.
• State 2 Being repaired following a failure (including being in the repair queue).
• State 3 Failed but not detected (a dormant failure).
• State 4 'Up' and passive (available, but not being currently used).
• State 5 'Up' and active (being used).
The q value of the element for states 1 to 4 is equal to zero, and for state 5, q = Q.
Element Data
There are three main types of data used by elements in a RAMP model, organised according
to the following headings:
• Reliability Parameters
• Repair Policy
• Planned Maintenance
13
Reliability Parameters
Are the basic data required to populate a model - these include failure and repair details,
capacity, a name and any comments. See Figure 1.1 below.
Figure 1.1 : Element Details form, Reliability Parameters tab
Repair Policy
Details are required for any element which has repair conditions - for example, a switchboard
would need an electrical technician to be available and a pump might need a new seal set.
Other conditions which can be set include logistic repair delay (the amount of time that will
elapse before a repair starts), startup delay for passive items, and repair priority. See Figure
1.2 below.
Figure 1.2 : Element Details form, Repair Policy tab
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Planned Maintenance
Details can be entered for any element which will be unavailable at known times due to the
performance of preventive maintenance. Three PM cycles are available per element and
more elements can be used if more PM cycles are desired. See Figure 1.3 below.
Figure 1.3 : Element Details form, Planned Maintenance tab
Group Data
RAMP supports eleven different group types, which allows a lot of flexibility when simulating
varied process conditions. The group types can be roughly divided into Process type groups
(designed to simulate process conditions) and Logic type groups (designed to provide
decisions or logical conditions) although all types of group can be mixed together in the same
model without restriction.
Process Groups
The Process groups consist of the following types:
• Active Redundant
• Standby Redundant
• Minimum
• Buffer
• Time
The Minimum group is the basic series group - all elements are configured in a single line
and failure of any element will take the group Q value to zero. When no element has failed,
the group Q value is the minimum of all the elements in the group, hence the name of the
group.
The Buffer group provides storage - this can be used to model tanks or similar process items
and can also be used to provide a delayed effect on failure.
The Time group provides one means of steadily increasing or decreasing a capacity over time
- starting with a minimum value the Time group will increase by specified steps up to a
maximum.
15
The Active Redundant group allows simulation of a system where two or more items are in
parallel. This may give protection against failures (e.g. a 3 x 50% system) or partial
degradation instead of complete loss (e.g. 3 x 33%). All items in an Active Redundant group
are active all the time, hence the name of the group.
The Standby Redundant group allows simulation of a duty/standby redundant system where
not all items are required to run at the same time to deliver the required performance. If an
item in a Standby Redundant group is not required at any time then it is put into a Passive
state.
These groups may be distinguished from each other in the Model Diagram by the prefix letter
in the title and by the group colour. More detailed descriptions of the properties of these
groups can be found in Appendix A.
Logic Groups
The Logic groups consist of the following types:
• Greater Than
• Less Than
• Difference
• Equality
• Product
• Quotient
The Greater Than group allows the user to detect if a group or element capacity is Greater
Than a set condition, hence the name.
The Less Than group is similar to the Greater Than group - it allows the user to detect if a
group or element capacity is Less Than a set condition.
The Difference Group returns the difference between the capacities of two items.
The Equality Group allows the user to detect if a group or element capacity is equal to a set
condition.
The Product Group returns the product of the capacities of two items, i.e. it multiplies one by
the other.
The Quotient Group returns the quotient of the capacities of two items, i.e. it divides one by
the other.
These groups may be distinguished from each other in the Model Diagram by the prefix letter
in the title and by the group colour. More detailed descriptions of the properties of these
groups can be found in Appendix A.
Mission Data
Several items of information required for the running of a RAMP model are input through the
Mission Data form, which can be found under Simulation \ Mission Data. The most
important of these items of information are the Model Title, the Mission Length and the
Number of Missions.
16
Model Title
RAMP requires a Model Title before any simulation can be run. This title will appear on
printouts of results from the model.
Mission Length
RAMP does not make any assumptions about which particular time units are used in a model,
but it does assume that all time units used in the model are the same. For example, if you
have defined all your failure and repair data in terms of hours, and want to run the simulation
for a period of 1 year, then you should enter 8760 for the Mission Length.
Number of Missions
RAMP produces events from a set of distributions which are sampled by a pseudo-random
number generator. This process produces variation in the results, which may be reduced by
running multiple simulations of the model. The number of simulations to be run must be left to
the judgement of the user but it is recommended that at least 10 should be run for most
models, but preferably 100 if time is available.
Figure 1.4 : Mission Data form, General tab
Other Model Data

Rolling Averages
Rolling Averages provide a graph of the performance of any specified group over the
simulation life span. For a detailed view of group performance, try running for one simulation
only - the results from multiple simulations will be averaged.
Histograms
Histograms are used to graph performance or down time from specified groups. They must
be used with multiple missions as the figures used for the graph refer to the average figure
achieved at the end of each mission.
17
Criticality
Criticality is a measure of how much loss of performance can be attributed to a particular
element or group. RAMP allows groups to be specified for Criticality calculation - all sub
groups and elements for the specified group will be assigned a criticality result for that group
based on their performance.
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Chapter
2
CHAPTER 2 – BUILDING A RAMP MODEL
This chapter describes how to build a simple RAMP model. It is divided into two sections: the first
section is a step-by-step description of a worked example. The second section provides more detail on
the various screens through which the elements and their repair and failure characteristics are defined.
If you have any problems with the worked example, go through the detailed descriptions in the second
section.
Creating a Simple Model
Getting Started
In this section you will create a small model from scratch and, in doing so, familiarise yourself with some
of the essential features and functions of RAMP. The example we will use is a simplified representation
of a fuel mill, consisting of a fuel feeder and a mill house. The mill grinds solid fuel fed from the feeder
which enters the mill house through the mill doors. Grinding takes place on a grinding table with the help
of a mill motor and a mill gearbox. Before the ground fuel leaves the mill house, it passes through a
separator.
The system has an overall design capacity of 25 tonnes per hour. There are three mill doors working in
active redundancy, each with a capacity of 9 tonnes per hour.
Thus the system as a whole is made up of the following components:

• The fuel feeder feeding raw material into the mill house.
• A group of three mill doors, all of which are operating (i.e. no standby items).
• The mill motor.
• The mill gearbox.
• The grinding table.
• The separator.
Figure 2.1 : Fuel Mill Block Diagram
The mill also has a stock of spare parts to be used for repairs in the case of a breakdown, and a team of
repair workers to carry out maintenance and repairs. A block diagram of the fuel mill showing each of
the components is shown in Figure 2.1 above.
19
Group Structure
RAMP enforces a 'top-down' approach to building - the model structure is started at the topmost level
and expanded downwards. The first thing to do is to start a new model - use File \ New or <Ctrl><N>.
The block that appears on your screen is a single element and must be expanded if it is to do anything
useful:
• Double-click the block to open the Element Details form.
• Click the Convert to Group button or press <Alt><G> - this turns the element into a group.
• Specify that you want 2 elements in the group and click OK.
You now have an undefined group with two elements. Since any element can be converted into a group,
the model can be expanded downwards almost indefinitely.
The default group is a Minimum, which is required for the top level group:
• Change the group name from UNDEFINED to FUEL MILL PART A.
• Click OK or press <Enter> - you now have a group with two elements in it.
• Double-click on the right hand element and convert it into a group with five elements in it.
• Name this group 'MILL HOUSE' and click on OK to close the form.
You should now start to see some similarity between the model you have on screen and the model in
Figure 2.1 above. The major differences are that one of the groups has not been defined yet, and no
element data has been entered.
To construct the redundant group representing the Mill House doors:

• Double-click the left-hand element in the MILL HOUSE group to open the Element Details form.
• Convert the element into a group of three elements called DOORS.
• Click on the Group Type drop-down list and select Active Redundant - name this group DOORS.
• Enter 25 for the Rating and 0 for the Cut Off.
• Click OK to close the form - you have now completed the group structure for the model.
Element Details
To enter element details, double-click on the element and the Element Details form will open, as shown
in Figure 2.2 below.
Starting with the left-most element in the model, enter the following details:
Name : Fuel Feeder
Q Value : 25
Failure Distribution : Negative Exponential (click on drop-down list)
Failure Mean : 50000
Repair Distribution : Lognormal (click on drop-down list)
th
Repair Dist 50 Percentile : 7.6
th
Repair Dist 95 Percentile : 14
th th
If the repair distribution does not show 50 and 95 percentiles, click on Options \ Repair Distribution
th
and select 50/95 Percentile. When you have finished, close the form. The element block should now
have changed colour from orange to yellow, signifying that it has been named and is no longer
Undefined.
20
Figure 2.2 : Reliability Parameters tab, Element Details form
For the remaining elements, working from the left, enter the following data:
Name Q Failure Failure Repair Repair Repair

th th
value Dist Mean Dist 50 pctile 95 pctile
Mill Door 1 9 Neg Exp 1,500,000 Lognormal 3.8 14
Mill Motor 25 Neg Exp 10,000 Lognormal 1.9 4.5
Mill Gearbox 25 Neg Exp 200,000 Lognormal 1.5 6
Grinding 25 Neg Exp 175,200 Lognormal 3.8 9
Table
Separator 25 Neg Exp 1,000,000 Lognormal 5.7 16
Once these are all complete, the model should look like Figure 2.1 above. Note that all time data given
in this chapter is assumed to be in hours.
Mission Data
Mission Data is required to define the overall conditions of the simulation. Essential Mission Data
includes a Model Title, a Mission Length and the Number of Missions required.
21
To reach the Mission Data form, click on Simulation \ Mission Data and enter the data as shown. You
now have a model with enough data to run - save it by clicking File \ Save or pressing <Ctrl><S>.
Defining Repair Resources

You now have a workable model, but it is not a complete model according to the original description of
the system, which says, 'The mill also has a stock of spare parts to be used for repairs in the case of a
breakdown, and a team of repair workers to carry out maintenance and repairs'.
RAMP assumes that all repair resources are available in the quantities required, unless you specify
limits. To specify resource details for this model, we will need to define Repair Trades and Spares.
Specifying repair resources is a two-part procedure - firstly the resources must be defined for the model
as a whole, then the repair resource requirements must be defined for each element.
Repair Trades
Repair Trades correspond to maintenance workers. To define one, open the Repair Trades form under
the Data menu. Click on the Create button, enter a name (Repair Team) and a number (1), click on the
Add button and close the form.
Spares
The mill keeps one each of the following parts in stock:
• Fuel feeder
• Mill gearbox
• Grinding table
• Mill door
• Separator
• Mill motor
Choose Spares from the Data menu and click on Create. This will open up the Spares form with an
UNDEFINED spare for editing.
Figure 2.4 : Spares form
• For Name enter 'Spare Fuel Feeder'.

• Set Policy to Re-order.
• Enter a value of 0 for Re-order Level and 336 for Time Delay.
• Click Add to save your entry and close the form.
Repeat this procedure for the remaining spare parts and close the Spares form.
22
Using Repair Resources
Repair resources are allocated to each element separately. To enter repair resource details, double-click
on an element block to open up the Element Details form, and click on the Repair Policy tab at the top of
the form. This will bring you to the Repair Policy form as shown in Figure 2.5 below.
The Repair Policy tab on the Element form shows a number of items of information which can be used
to control some aspects of unscheduled failure and repair. To add a Repair Resource, click on the Add
button and select either Repair Trade or Spare as appropriate. Select the ‘Repair Team’ trade for each
element and also the appropriate spare. The model is now complete.
Printing and Saving the Model Diagram

When you have finished constructing the model, you can print out the model diagram or save it as a
graphics file for documentation and reporting purposes. Note that this is not the same as saving the
model itself.
To print the model diagram, choose Print from the File menu. Make any required adjustments in the
Print form and click the Print button to print the diagram.
To save the model diagram, choose Save Model Graphic from the File menu. The Save As form will
then open for you to save the graphics file, as either a bitmap (BMP) file or a Windows Meta Format
(WMF) file.
Detailed Element Parameters

Element Details Form - Reliability Parameters Tab
Once the general structure of the model in terms of elements and groups has been put together using
the RAMP Builder, the reliability characteristics of the individual elements must be defined. This can be
done either by using the Element Details form for each individual element, or for several elements at one
time using the Element Table View.
To edit element details using the Element Details form, simply double-click within the bounds of the
required element. To create an Element Type from the element, click the Create Element Type button.
More information about Element Types is given in Chapter 5.
23
Figure 2.6 : Element Details form, Reliability Parameters tab
The layout of the Element Details form is shown above. The data items that can be entered into the
form are listed below. The form consists of three parts, each accessed using the appropriate 'tab'. In
addition, buttons are provided in the form with the following functions:
General Data on the Reliability Parameters tab:

Parameter Name Data Type Description
Name String Up to 32 characters. This should be a meaningful description of the block being
modelled. The name is merely a label for you to identify elements in the model
and in the tabular results. It is not used to define the model structure (this is
done with an internal numbering system invisible to the user).
Q Value Real > 0 The Q value of the element when it is in an Up and Active state.
Element Type Menu This may be a Unique type (default) or a defined Element Type. The parameter
should be set to Unique Type if the element is the only one of its type in the
system, or is the first of its type to be entered. Optionally it may be set to equal
to a defined Element Type from the drop-down list. When set, it is assumed to
be of the same type as that element, that is it has the same failure and repair
characteristics and shares a common pool of spares (see Chapter 5, Spares in
the Data menu). If set to a defined element type, then all parameters for that
element are set to the values for that type and cannot be changed.
Comments String This is a notepad area which can be used to store information about each
Element.
24
Failure and Repair Distributions on the Reliability Parameters tab:
Distribution Type Menu Weibull
Negative Exponential
Lognormal
Fixed
Failure Free - available only on the Failure menu.
Un-Repairable - available only on the Repair menu.
Failure Parameters Real Parameters are presented on the form according to the Distribution
Type specified:
Negative exponential Param 1 - Mean
Weibull Param 1 - Characteristic Life
Param 2 - Shape
Lognormal Param 1 - Median
Param 2 - Dispersion
Fixed Failure Time
Failure Free None
Repair Parameters Real Parameters are presented on the form according to the Distribution
Type specified:
Negative Exponential Param 1 - Mean
Weibull Param 1 - Characteristic Life
Param 2 - Shape
Lognormal Param 1 - Median
Param 2 - Dispersion
Fixed Repair Time
Un-Repairable None
For Repair distributions only, there is an option of specifying
Weibull and Lognormal distributions as percentiles:
th
Param 1 - 50 Percentile
th
Param 2 - 95 Percentile
Choose Repair Distribution from the Options menu to select the
method of display and entry.
Element Details Form - Repair Policy Tab

This set of parameters relates specifically to the repair conditions of the element. The various options
are explained in the tables given below.
25
General Data on the Repair Policy tab:
Parameter Data Type Description
Name
Logistic Repair Real or The logistic delay is a period that must elapse before a repair can start. Time
Delay integer > 0 units must be the same as for the mission time.
Repair to Good- Boolean This field should be checked to indicate whether or not the element is restored to
as-New 'Good-as-New' following repair of a random failure. (The alternative is 'Bad-as-
Old'.) By default this field is checked, i.e. repair to Good-as-New. This parameter
is only appropriate for use with items whose probability of failure increases with
time.
Repair Priority Integer > 0 This field is used only if Resource/Repair Conditions are specified for the element
(see below). Elements are repaired according to their repair priority, where 1 is
highest priority. Elements with the same priority number are repaired on a 'first
come first served' basis.
Standby Elements Data on the Repair Policy tab:

Parameter Data Type Description
Name
Passive failure Real, > 0 This field specifies the factor by which the element 'failure rate' is multiplied when
rate factor operating in the 'Passive' as opposed to the 'Active' state. Usually this factor will
be between zero and one, indicating a lower passive failure rate than active
failure rate. This field is used only if the element is contained in one or more
Standby Redundant groups.
Switching Real, 0% This field shows the probability (between 0% and 100%) that the element fails
Failure to 100% when switched from a standby state into the active state. If a switching failure
Probability occurs, the element must be repaired in the normal way before it can be used
again.. This field applies only if the element is contained in one or more Standby
Redundant groups.
Startup Delay Real or The startup delay is a period that must elapse before an element currently on
integer > 0 standby can go to an active state. Time units must be the same as for the
mission time. This field is only useful if the element is in one or more Standby
Redundant groups.
Resource/Repair Conditions on the Repair Policy tab:

This section of the form allows you to define up to eight Resource/Repair conditions, all of which must be
satisfied before the element can be withdrawn from the repair queue to be sent for repair.
Type Description
Repair Trade Any number of units, up to the defined limit, of any previously defined repair
trade.
Spare Any number of units, up to the defined limit, of any previously defined spare.
Group Q value Any model group can be compared, using one of six logical operators, to any
desired fixed Q value.
Buffer Level Any model buffer group level can be compared, using one of six logical operators,
to any desired fixed buffer level value.
Element State Any element state (from 5) can be compared, using one of six logical operators,
to any desired element state.
26
Element Details Form - Planned Maintenance (PM) Tab
Four fields are employed to define each of up to three Maintenance (PM) cycles adopted for the
element. These are the Up time, the Down Time, the point in the cycle at which the Down Time starts,
and whether PM returns the Element to Good-as-New.
Figure 2.8 : Element Details form, Planned Maintenance tab

Up Time, Down Time, Positive integer If Up Time is set to a value greater than zero, this is interpreted as
Down Time Starts At the time period during which the element is not undergoing
preventive maintenance (although it may suffer random failure and
repair during this period). The Down Time field specifies the period
required for preventive maintenance to be carried out. The Down
Time Starts At field identifies the position in the preventive
maintenance cycle at which the down time starts.
PM to Good-As-New Boolean This field should be checked to indicate that this PM cycle restores
the element to Good-as-New, or left unchecked for Bad-as-Old. Note
that Preventive Maintenance takes precedence over all other
possible events which can occur for that element; whatever state the
element is in, it is always sent for preventive maintenance at the
appointed time in the cycle.
PM carried out Boolean This field indicates whether 'intelligent' PM is to be modelled; if this is
intelligently so, the box should be checked. Note that the setting of this flag for
the individual Element can be 'overridden' globally as described in
Chapter 3.
27
Detailed Group Parameters
Displaying the Group Details Form
Groups are defined using the Edit Group Details form. To display the Group form, simply double-click
within the bounds of the required group but not on any element. The form displayed contains data fields
appropriate to the group type. If the model is complex and the required group is not easily visible, then
use the Go To and Zoom facilities, as described in Chapter 5.
Figure 2.9 : Group Details form
Defining Group Parameters

Identifying the Group
Groups in RAMP are identified by a Group Name. As with elements, the Group Name is user-defined
and therefore does not affect the structure or the operation of the model. It can be helpful, especially
when revisiting an old model, if the Comments field contains a brief description of what the group is
supposed to do.
Assigning the Group Name

• Double-click the Group to display the Edit Group Details form.
• Click on the Name field (which initially shows the name UNDEFINED) and enter a valid name.
• Click on OK.
Once the Group name has been changed from UNDEFINED, the specified group is displayed in the
defined colour for that group type. The forms for the different Group types are described in the following
sections.
Defining the Group Type

The data items that should be entered into the form are listed in the following table. Groups that do not
appear in this table have no parameters to set. More details as to what these parameters actually mean
are provided later on in this chapter. Note that the Rating parameter in the Active Redundant group can
be disabled by checking the Rating Not Limited box. In this case the output of the group is the sum of
the q values of the group components.
28
Group Name Parameters
Active Redundant Rating - this refers to the expected output of the group.
Cut Off - this is the point below which the output of the group will be zero.
Standby Rating - this refers to the expected output of the group.
Redundant Cut Off - this is the point below which the output of the group will be zero.
Time Time Delay - the time period between successive activations of the contained
elements.
Buffer Capacity - the size of the storage contained in this buffer, which should be
consistent with the unit chosen for q elsewhere in the model.
Initial Level - the initial level of the substance contained in the buffer, which should
be consistent with the units chosen for q elsewhere in the model.
Input Constraint - a feature in RAMP versions 3.5 upwards which allows the user
to cap the input capacity of the buffer to the q level of another specified group or
element.
Output Constraint - a feature in RAMP versions 3.5 upwards which allows the user
to cap the output capacity of the buffer to the q level of another specified group or
element.
Equality Lower Limit - the lower limit of the range that equality will be tested against.
Upper Limit - the upper limit of the range that equality will be tested against.
Model Editing Facilities in the Group Details Form

Changing the Group Type
To change the group type of an existing group:
• Double-click on the required group to display the Edit Group Details form.
• Click on the Group Type field to display the drop-down menu.
• Choose the new group type from the Group Type list.
The Edit Group Details form changes to show the parameters appropriate to the new group type, and the
builder screen shows the new group in the selected colour for that group type.
Series, Active and Standby Redundant groups are freely interchangeable. For instance, an N-element
Series group becomes an N-element Standby group.
Increasing the Number of Elements in a Group

To increase the size of any existing group:
• Double-click the required group to display the Group Details form.
• Click on and edit the Number of Items parameter.
• Click on OK.
The model will be re-displayed showing the extra elements, if allowable given the group type. If not, a
warning is displayed.
The extra items are always added to the right-most position of Series groups and to the bottom-most
position of all other group types. The order of items within a group can be changed by use of the
Copy/Cut and Paste facilities, or by using the right-click and drag feature.
Reducing the Number of Items in a Group

The Edit Group Details form includes a Delete button with which items within the group can be deleted.
To delete an element or group:
• Locate the element or group by name in the Group Structure list and click on the item to highlight it
• Click on the Delete button - a confirm dialog is displayed showing the name of the item to be deleted.
• Click on Yes to delete or No to abandon.
• Alternatively, highlight the item in the Model Diagram and press <Delete> to remove it.
The selected item will be deleted from the Group Structure list. Click on OK and the model is redrawn
without the deleted item.
29
If all items in a group are deleted, then the group reverts to a single element having the name and
identifier number of the original group.
Further Editing Facilities

RAMP provides standard Windows editing facilities, (e.g. Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) either from the
keyboard, e.g. <Ctrl><C>, from the Edit menu, or from the pop up menu on the mouse right click.
In order to address the problems of finding and editing data in large models, additional facilities (Select
and Element Table View) have been provided in version 3.5 upwards. A more detailed description of
these facilities is given in Chapter 5.
Select Function
The Select function can be found on the Edit menu, and provides a search facility for finding elements,
based on parameters such as the element name or failure distribution.
The selected elements will be displayed as a table if Table View is selected. Otherwise, the model
diagram will be displayed with all element and group colours set to white except for the selected items,
which are set to green. Any element or group which is edited while in Select View will return to its
standard colours. This is designed to help the user keep track of what has been edited whilst in Select
View. Choose Deselect from the Edit menu to return to the normal model diagram.
The Select Children function is used with the Model Diagram only and does not provide a search facility.
Highlight a group in the Model Diagram and click on Edit \ Select Children. All elements immediately
below the level of the selected group will be selected.
Element Table View

The Element Table View provides a spreadsheet view of the element data in the model. The data is
organised in three tabs which correspond to the tabs on the Element Details form. This function is
provided to allow rapid editing and checking of model data and will also accept data pasted from other
applications. Note that it is not possible to paste data into any field that uses a drop-down box.
The Element Table View is available from View \ Element Table View, or from the Selection Criteria
form. If less than two elements on the model diagram are highlighted, then all elements are shown in
the table. If two or more elements are highlighted then only those elements are shown in the table.
More than two elements can be selected directly from the model by clicking on the elements with the Ctrl
key depressed, as well as the Select Children described above.
The Element Table View is used with the Select facility to show selected elements. When using the
Select facility (Edit \ Select), click on Table View to display the selected items in a table.
Element Parameter Factors

The Element Parameter Factors facility allows you to change parameters on multiple elements. It is
used with the Element Table View. With the Element Table View selected, click on Edit \ Element
Parameter Factors to bring up the Factors form. Note that changes made through the Factors form will
apply to all elements displayed in the Element Table View and that some changes are irreversible.
Data fields available for change through the Element Parameter Factors form are:
• Element Q Value.
• Logistic Repair Delay.
• Failure Distribution.
• Repair Distribution.
• Preventive Maintenance.
Note that fields contain default values which are applied to elements, containing the value 1 when the
factors are used for multiplication or division of element parameters and zero when used for addition
purposes.
30
Element Types
RAMP provides the Element Type facility to speed up the entry of data into a model. Element Types are
predefined sets of element data which can be loaded quickly into any element. To create an Element
Type, click on the Create Element Type button on any named Element Details form (i.e. any element
which is not UNDEFINED). Alternatively, click on Data \ Element Types to open the Element Types list,
as shown in Figure 2.10 below. Clicking the Create button will open up a new Element Details form
which you can populate with information.
Once the Element Type has been created, it can be used by any element - click on the Element Type
drop-down list on the Element Details form to select from among the defined Element Types. Note that
this will overwrite any existing information (except the name) in the chosen element and that the
imported element data cannot be changed until the Element Type is changed back to Unique, or the
data for the Element Type is edited itself.
Figure 2.10 : Element Type list
Element Types are saved in the model file and will be loaded whenever a model is loaded. They can
also be imported from other model files and can therefore be passed between models. It is
recommended that a model file with useful Element Types in it should be maintained by anyone using
RAMP frequently.
31
Chapter
3
CHAPTER 3 – RAMP MISSION DATA
This chapter gives you more information about the Mission Data used in a RAMP model. In Chapter 2,
we covered the Element and Group data required for a model in some detail. Although this is
necessary, it is not sufficient to define everything about the model that we wish to run.
RAMP is a Monte Carlo package and simulates events based on distributions set by the user. Because
the element failure and repair times are sampled randomly from the distributions, the modelled time
period represents only one history of possible events. It is necessary to repeat the mission (perform
many simulations) in order to produce a picture of the spread of possible results and to give statistical
confidence in the results.
The data required to control the simulation, in contrast to the data required to define the model, is
entered via the Mission Data form, available from the Simulation menu. Some information about
results from the simulation is given in Chapter 4.
The Mission Data Form – General Information Tab

The Mission Data form consists of four main parts, each part of which is accessed by clicking on the
appropriate tab.
The first field on this form is the Model Title - this appears on any printed results and must be filled in
before the model can be run. The title can be any length up to 60 characters and it is useful to give a
short description of the model here.
32
Simulation Start and Termination Conditions
Mission Length
The mission length is a measure of how long the simulated system is to run for. For example, if the
system is to be simulated over a period of 1 year and the unit of time in use in the model is hours, then
the mission length will be set to 8760.
Number of Missions
This determines how many times RAMP repeats the simulation before finishing the run.
Random Number Seed

The random number seed determines the base from which calculation starts in the model. If the random
number seed is set to a specific number, then the simulation can be repeated exactly. If the random
number seed is set to zero, then RAMP will choose a seed based on the number of seconds after
midnight and there will be variation between one run and another.
Q Value Termination
RAMP normally completes a run when all the specified missions have been completed. The results from
the run are then calculated. However, if Q value termination is chosen, then RAMP will stop the
simulation after a named group has changed its Q value a specified number of times.
Intelligent Preventive Maintenance

Intelligent Preventive Maintenance (IPM) may be used for any element which has both unscheduled
failures (i.e. a failure distribution) and preventive maintenance specified. IPM will take advantage of an
unscheduled failure to perform the next scheduled PM cycle, if the two events are close enough
together.
• No IPM for any element (default).
• IPM determined for every element (all elements with PM will use IPM).
• IPM depends on element IPM flag (only items which specify IPM on the Element form use it).
The typical result of setting IPM would be a slight increase in availability as the total downtime is
reduced.
Logging Options
Events
The Event Log is a listing of all events which have taken place during the simulation, for as many runs as
specified. The information contained in the Event Log consists of the Mission Number, the event time,
the element name and ID and the specific state change for the element.
Warning - log files can get very large! It is recommended that you should try using the log file for 1
simulation only (specify 1 in the Missions to Log box) and check the resulting log file size before
logging lengthy multiple simulations. The log file is called FILENAME.LOG and is written in the same
directory as the other model files.
Buffers
The Buffer Log is a listing of buffer performance during the simulation. The information contained in the
Buffer Log consists of the Mission Number, the time, the buffer name and ID, the buffer level, the
nominal buffer input Q value, the nominal buffer output Q value and the actual buffer output Q value.
Note that the value of the output from any buffer group is a function of the nominal output Q value, the
nominal input Q value and the buffer level - this is why the nominal and actual buffer output Q values
may differ.
Missions to Log
Set the number of missions for which a log is required - this applies to both the event and buffer logs.
33
The Mission Data Form – Rolling Averages Tab
The Rolling Average function provides a graph of group performance over time. You can select up to
eight groups to monitor (including the topmost System group if required). The graphs produced can be
displayed on screen or printed out and the data file produced may be imported into a spreadsheet for
further processing if required.
Time Span and Increment

These two parameters control the 'granularity' of the graph - ie how much detail it will show. The Rolling
Average is produced by averaging the performance of the selected group over an initial period equal to
the Time Span. Once this is complete the time span is incremented and the rolling average is calculated
again. The end result is a graph of up to six thousand points which gives a good representation of the Q
value output of your chosen groups, although care should be taken not to exceed the points limit when
specifying the time span and increment.
It should be noted that most monitors do not have a resolution of more than about 1,000 pixels
widthways, so more than this will not be visible on screen. For multiple missions, the results are
accumulated with the set of rolling average figures generated from all previous missions in order to
construct a single, averaged set of data.
Selecting Groups
To add a group to the list, click on Add and choose from the drop-down list presented. Up to eight
groups for rolling averages can be defined. Use the Find facility if your model is large and the group is
not easily found. To delete a group from the list, highlight the chosen group and click on Delete.
Figure 3.2 : Mission Data form, Rolling Average tab
34
The Mission Data Form – Histograms Tab
The Histogram function provides a graph of a frequency count based on the results from multiple
simulations. The range of results derived from the simulations is split into a number of bands, and the
number of results falling into each band is displayed as a histogram. Up to ten histograms can be
defined.
Figure 3.3 : Mission Data form, Histograms tab
Histogram Type
Two types of histogram are supported. The Down Time histogram records the total downtime for each
selected group over a number of missions and graphs these over a range selected by the user. The Q
value histogram performs the same function for the average Q value of a particular group. It should be
noted that the range for the graph display is specified by the user - the Q value range is normally easier
to specify as it will only vary between zero and the maximum Q value of the group. The same group
may be specified for both the Down Time and Average Q histograms if required.
Specifying Histograms
To add a histogram, click on Add on the Histogram form and select from the drop-down list. Use the
Find function to locate your specified group if the model is large. Having selected the group, you will
also need to specify whether the group will have a Down Time or Average Q histogram generated for it,
and a range of values. If the range of values is set too narrow, then some or all of the graph may not be
displayed. To remove a histogram, select a group from the Defined Histograms list and click on the
Delete button. To modify histogram details, select a group and click on the Edit button, or edit the data
directly within the table.
35
The Mission Data Form – Criticality Tab
RAMP calculates the effect of every element failure or event on the overall Q value of the surrounding
groups. The Criticality function provides a ranked list of elements based on their failure effects. Those
elements that cause the most downtime or production loss for the selected groups will appear at the
head of the criticality list. This function allows 'hot spots' and bottlenecks to be identified easily and can
be used for plant optimisation or design improvement.
Specifying Criticality Groups

To use the criticality function, select up to twenty groups using the Add button on the criticality tab. For
those groups, the criticality effects of the elements within them will be calculated. The criticality results
are available on the Results menu.
Figure 3.4 : Mission Data form, Criticality tab
Significance of Criticality Results

It should be noted that the criticality of an element may vary according to which group is selected for the
criticality calculation. An element may be highly critical to a group which is several levels down in the
hierarchy, but have little or no effect on the performance of the system as a whole, owing to redundancy
or other overriding effects. Therefore, it is always recommended that you should know what results are
required from the criticality calculation before specifying groups.
Running the Simulation

To start the simulation, choose Run from the Simulation menu. If the model has been changed since
being loaded or last saved, RAMP will ask you to save the file before it is run.
Click the Save button to save the file using its present name, the Save As button to save the file under
another name or the Cancel button to cancel the run. When you save the file, RAMP goes through a
validation procedure to make sure that the structure of the model is correct and that there are no
problems with the model data. If problems are found then the validation will halt with an appropriate
error message.
The simulation may take seconds, minutes or hours, depending on the complexity of the system, the
number of events (failures, repairs, etc.) which occur during a mission and the duration and number of
missions to be simulated.
36
The Progress Monitor
During the simulation run, the Progress Monitor is displayed to show how far the simulation has
advanced. The Progress Monitor normally displays two bars - the top bar displays the progress of the
individual simulation and the bottom bar displays the progress of the run as a whole. If you have
specified 'Q Value Termination' in the Mission Data form (see above) then a third bar will be displayed
which shows the simulation progress against the number of Q value changes required.
Figure 3.5 : Progress Monitor
Control of the Simulation

While it is running, you may interrupt the simulation run at any time in one of the following ways:
• By clicking the Abort button in the Progress Monitor form. In this case, no data will be
produced.
• By clicking the Halt and Calculate button in the Progress Monitor form. In this case, the
simulation will halt at the end of the current mission. RAMP will calculate all data accumulated
up until termination of the run and write these to the appropriate files.
On completion of the simulation run, RAMP will display a message box stating that "Simulation
completed successfully”.
A Worked Example of a RAMP Simulation

After constructing the worked example of a model in Chapter 2, you may now like to complete the task
by running a simulation of the mill. If so, proceed as follows.
First, you need to inform RAMP of the conditions under which the simulation is to be run. This includes
information on the duration of each mission, the number of missions and the way in which rolling
averages are to be calculated:
• Select Mission Data from the Simulation menu to open the Mission Data Form.
• Choose a meaningful Mission Length and Number of Missions.
• Add any groups required to the Rolling Averages, Histogram or Criticality tabs, as described above.
• Click OK to save the data close the form.
• Choose Run from the Simulation menu.
The progress bar will be displayed indicating the degree of completion of the simulation and the number
of missions completed. Assuming no errors are encountered, you will then see the message "Simulation
completed successfully".
37
Chapter
4
CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS OF THE SIMULATION
Uses of RAMP Results
This Chapter gives details of the various results provided by RAMP. It should be noted that, although
the results provided are detailed and extensive, they have no particular meaning until they have been
interpreted and understood with relation to the system being modelled. With the correct understanding
of the model and reasonable interpretation of the results, these are some of the uses which can be
made of RAMP simulation models:
• Identification of bottlenecks.
• Calculation of optimal reserve holdings.
• Assessment of demand profiles.
• Checking performance against requirements.
• Checking the real benefits of redundancy.
• Assessment of changes to operational and maintenance procedures.
• Checking adequacy of maintenance resources.
• Calculation of failure times for complex systems.
RAMP Files
The results of the simulation are recorded in data files which RAMP writes to your computer's current
working disk drive. If a simulation run has completed successfully, RAMP may produce up to eight
separate files containing data relevant to the actual run as follows:
• FILENAME.REC The Record file is created by the simulation engine when a simulation is
performed and contains all of the input data in tabular form.
• FILENAME.OUT The Output file contains the results of a successfully executed simulation.
The Output file is used to generate the various results tables.
• FILENAME.RAV The Rolling Average file containing data points from rolling average
calculations.
• FILENAME.D20 The Histogram file containing data points from histogram calculations.
• FILENAME.CRT The Criticality file containing details of the selected group criticality lists.
• FILENAME.TMP A file generated by RAMP which is passed to the simulation engine.
• FILENAME.LOG The Event Log file, containing details of all the events in the simulation.
• FILENAME.BUF The Buffer Log file, containing details of buffer performance.
If execution of the simulation was unsuccessful owing to the presence of faulty data in the model, only
the REC files and OUT files will be created, which will contain appropriate error messages. Another file
which is created is FILENAME.VAL, which contain the results of the validation operation performed when
the model was saved.
Note that if you have made changes to the model since the last simulation was run, some results may
not be available as RAMP will detect that the results files are older than the model. In order to avoid this
problem, and as good general practice, always save the model under another name before making
changes.
38
RAMP Results Tables
The main results from the RAMP simulation are presented as a set of tables, some of which will be
available for all models and some of which depend on the model configuration. The table names are
shown under the Results menu. Details of each Results table are given below.
The tabulated numerical results may be the best way of identifying the cause of low Availability or
Productivity. Examination of these results may indicate a particular problem such as the following:
• A group which has a very low average q value.
• An element which has a very low average q value.
• A Buffer group which spends a very large proportion of the time empty.
• An element which spends a long time in State 2 (repair) - this may indicate queuing for repair,
e.g. because of insufficient resources.
• Insufficient Repair Trade resources.
• Insufficient Spares of a particular type.
Modelling details should always be checked if any unexpectedly low values are noticed – this often
indicates a mistake in data entry or model design.
The interpretation of the results from a simulation will depend on the design of the model (i.e. the user's
intentions and the chosen measure of interest). It is the user who decides during the system analysis
stage what measure of capability is to be examined, and therefore what the q value of elements and
groups should mean.
It is possible to cut and paste all Results Tables into Excel for further manipulation and presentation
options.
Results Tables - Group and Element Results

Part 1 - Group Results
These results are available for all models:
Name Description
Group Name of group plus group number.
Type Type of group - eg Minimum , Buffer, etc.
Average Q Average Q of group as calculated over entire run.
% SD for Average Q Standard Deviation of average Q calculated at the end of each simulation.
Average Time, Q = 0 Average time during the run for which the Q of this group is zero.
Average Frequency, Q = 0 Average frequency during the run of events which brought the Q of this
group to zero.
Part 2 - Buffer Group Results

These results are available only where Buffer groups are specified:
Name Description
Group Name of buffer group plus group number.
Average Freq Empty Average frequency per simulation that buffer group is empty.
Average Freq Full Average frequency per simulation that buffer group is full.
Average Time Empty Average time per simulation that buffer group is empty.
Average Time Full Average time per simulation that buffer group is full.
Minimum Level Minimum buffer level achieved during run.
Maximum Level Maximum buffer level achieved during run.
39
Part 3 - Element Q value Results
Name Description
Element Element name plus element number.
Specified Q Q specified for element as nominal capacity.
Actual Q Achieved average Q over run.
Actual / Specified Q Percentage of specified Q achieved.
Percentage SD for Average Average frequency during the run of events which brought the Q of this
Q element to zero.
Average q divided by specified q for the mission is a particularly useful result as it gives a direct
indication of how well individual elements perform. However, it should be noted that elements in the
passive branch of a standby group will always have a low q/Q value and this should not be taken to
mean that the element is particularly unreliable.
Part 4 - Element Time in Each State

Name Description
Element Element name and element number.
PM Average amount of time per simulation spent in Planned Maintenance.
Repair Average amount of time per simulation spent in Repair.
Dormant Average amount of time per simulation spent in Dormant Failure.
Up, Passive Average amount of time per simulation spent Up but Passive.
Up, Active Average amount of time per simulation spent Up and Active.
Queuing Average amount of time per simulation spent Queuing.
Care should be taken to distinguish between this and the following table; the one refers to duration and
the other refers to number of events. All figures are calculated as an average per mission.
Part 5 - Element No. of Times per State

Name Description
Element Element name and element number.
PM Average frequency per simulation that element is in PM.
Repair Average frequency per simulation that element is in Repair.
Dormant Average frequency per simulation that element is in Dormant Failure.
Up, Passive Average frequency per simulation that element is Up but Passive.
Up, Active Average frequency per simulation that element is Up and Active.
Queuing Average frequency per simulation that element is Queuing.
Results Tables - Resource, CMF and Criticality

Part 6 - Resource Results
This table includes maximum and minimum levels for each resource specified, plus an average level for
the whole run. These results are available only where resources have been specified.
Part 7 - Common Mode Failure Results

This table includes average frequency of failure results for all defined Common Mode Failures. These
results are available only where Common Mode Failures have been specified.
40
Criticality Results
Identification of critical areas in the simulated system may be achieved by use of the criticality list. A
criticality results table is generated for each group specified, containing the relative criticality of the
elements within the specified group. If the relevant option has been checked under Options \
Criticality, then the criticality for each of the sub-groups under the specified group will also be added to
the list.
Where Criticality Result Tables are generated, they are designated alphabetically (i.e. from A onwards
up to T for the maximum number which can be specified). The 'Criticality' value is a measure of how
much unavailability the element causes during the mission – i.e. how much of the group capacity is lost.
For a simple model, the overall availability or performance and the overall criticality should sum together
to give the nominal Q. The additional values in the table are provided in order to allow individual element
performances to be checked against the specified failure, repair and resource details.
Name Description
Element Element name.
Criticality Calculated criticality level for element based on group performance.
Average Frequency, Group Average frequency for group of instances where specified element failure
Q=0 has resulted in Group Q going to zero.
Average Frequency, Average frequency failure for element over complete run.
Element Fails
Average Down Time Average down time for element over complete run.
MTBF Mean Time Between Failures, calculated from model performance.
Note that the criticality results for a particular element often depend upon which group is selected for the
criticality list. If an element fails in a minimum group then the value of the group will fall to zero and the
criticality of the element will be high. If the minimum group itself is part of an Active Redundant group
with substantial spare capacity then the failure will have no overall effect, and the criticality of the
element with regard to the Active Redundant group may be zero.
The data from any criticality table may be copied and pasted into Windows applications using the
Clipboard. It is recommended that one of the criticality groups selected should be the top level group in
order to include all elements in the list.
Printing Results Tables

With the results tables displayed on the screen, choosing Print… on the File menu gives the Print
Output dialog box which enables a selection or all of the 7 parts’ results tables to be printed. Each table
can be labelled with a title, filename, date and page number by ticking the appropriate boxes in the Page
Setup… option.
41
Histograms
Histogram Types
Histograms are most often used where the range of possible results from a simulation is important, and
not just the average. Histogram output can be obtained for up to ten specified groups via the
Histograms tab on the Mission Data form. More detail on setting up histograms is given in Chapter 3.
RAMP's histograms (of each type) divide the user-specified range into 50 equal slices. Two types of
histogram are available:
• Down Time: Distribution of down-time (q = 0) periods.
• Average Q: Distribution of mission-average q values.
The first type of histogram shows the distribution of failure times for the group. Each entry corresponds
to the number of times (throughout all missions simulated) when the group down-time duration fell within
the particular section in the range defined by the user.
If a group is still 'down' at the end of any mission the true duration of this down-time period is uncertain,
and is ignored when compiling the histogram The total down-times indicated by the histogram may
therefore be slightly less than the total number of times that the q value of the group fell to zero.
The second type of histogram shows the performance achieved for any selected group. Each entry
corresponds to the number of times, throughout all missions simulated, when the group Q value fell
within the particular section in the range defined by the user.
Histogram Display
The histograms produced during a RAMP simulation run can be displayed after choosing Histograms
from the Results menu and then selecting the required histogram from the list in the Histogram menu
in the RAMP Histogram Display screen. The list will show all groups for which histogram data have been
collected, indicating the type of histogram: Down time or Average q values.
After you click the required histogram, the histogram data will be loaded and the histogram will be
displayed on the screen. When histogram data are loaded, further menu items become available which
allow you to modify the way the data are displayed on the screen or printed out. The different options
available for displaying the histogram are as follows:
Graph Type
The histogram will be displayed by default as a 2-D vertical bar chart. RAMP gives you a choice of five
different graph types which can be selected from the Graph Type menu on the menu bar:
2-D Bar
• 3-D Bar
• 3-D Area
• Line
• Area
After you make your selection, the graph will be redrawn on the screen in the chosen format. This graph
type then remains valid for all histograms unless changed again or until you exit from the histogram
display screen by choosing Close from the File menu.
Data Display
The data for the histogram can be displayed on screen as a table - choose Show Data from the
Options menu. Alternatively, double-click on either the graph or the table to toggle between them.
Ramp version 5.0 has an additional column in the tables giving percentage values for the frequency and
cumulative frequency data. This enables rough confidence levels to be read across quickly from the
table. To do this more formally select Edit Min/Max/Critical Value... from the Options menu (See
Confidence Levels below).
42
Cumulative Histograms
The default histogram shows the frequency data in absolute units. If required, you can change the
display to show cumulative frequencies. To change between these two display options, choose either
Show Cumulative or Show Frequency from the Options menu. Not only the histogram display is
changed, but the numbers shown in the table of histogram data also change to show cumulative data.
Confidence Levels
It is often useful to provide a level of confidence for results such as average Q values. This can be done
by choosing the Edit Min/Max/Critical Value... from the Options menu. To determine the percentage
of average Q values over a certain value, check the Critical Value button and enter the value. To
determine the value which is the lower bound of a given percentage of average Q-values check the
Percentage button and enter the confidence level required.
Range of Values (X-axis)

The range of values on the x-axis can be specified by choosing the Edit Min/Max/Critical Value... from
the Options menu. The values outside the range are then grouped with those at the relevant end.
Selecting Display/Print Options

To change the screen display and printed appearance of the histogram, choose Display/Print Options
from the Options menu. You are then presented with the Histogram Display/Print Options form having
two tabs described below.
Display Options Tab

The titles shown on the screen display of the histogram and in the printed output are to a large extent
user-definable. This applies to the main graph title and the legends used for the X and Y axes. The
name of the group to which the histogram relates is also displayed and printed, but this title is fixed. The
titles will always revert to their default values when you load a new histogram or each time you call up
the histogram display screen. The settings available on this tab are:
Graph Title
Title to appear above the histogram, default title:
Down Time - (group name)
or Average Q - (group name)
depending on the histogram type selected.
X-Axis Title
Legend for the X-axis of the histogram, default legend:
Down Time Duration t
or Q Units
depending on the histogram type selected.
Y-Axis Title
Legend for the Y-axis of the histogram, default legend:
Freq
or Cum. Freq.
depending on the frequency display type selected.
Cell Colour
The default colour of the bar or line used to display the histogram is red. To change the colour, double-
click on the cell colour under Display Options and choose the required colour. As well as changing the
colour displayed on the screen, the colour that is output to a colour printer will also change. Careful
selection of the colours to be printed can be a useful aid in differentiating the various histograms for
reporting purposes.
43
The selected display colour remains valid for all histograms unless changed again or until you exit from
the histogram display screen by choosing Close from the File menu.
Y-Axis Maximum
The maximum value shown on the Y-axis is set according to the maximum value of the frequency data
in the current histogram. The range can be increased in order to alter the scaling of the histogram.
RAMP will not accept a value less than the maximum value contained in the frequency data.
Print Options Tab

Options available for the printed output are set under the Print Options tab.
Black and White

Choose this option if you want black and white print output.
Colour
This is the default setting and will produce colour output on a colour printer.
Print Date
By checking this option, the date will be printed in the top right-hand corner of the graph.
Print Filename
By checking this option, the filename of the will be printed in the header.
Page Title
Up to 60 characters can be entered as a title to be printed above the graph.
Printing and Saving the Histogram

Save Metafile
To save the histogram as it currently appears on the screen, choose Save Metafile from the File menu.
After you have entered a file name in the Save As dialog box, the histogram will be saved to disk as a
Windows metafile (.WMF), a colour graphics file format which can be loaded into most Windows
applications, such as word processors, spreadsheets and drawing and painting programs.
Print Histogram
When you choose Printer Setup from the File menu, the Print Setup dialog box opens which allows you
to select and set up the printer you wish to use for output of the histogram. As the printer set-up features
are specific to the printer you are using, please consult your printer's user manual for further details. Any
options you have set in the Display/Print Options dialog box (see above) in the Options menu will be
taken into account in the printed document.
Rolling Averages
Purpose of Rolling Average
The purpose of the rolling average display is to provide a graph of some part of the system behaviour.
The reason for using a rolling average is that, despite the smoothing effect of the average, peaks and
troughs in system behaviour are less likely to be missed than would be the case if the graph consisted
solely of sampled points. In addition to providing insight into system performance, Rolling Averages can
also be used during model validation and for checking time-dependent effects such as Planned
Maintenance and input profiles.
Calculation of Rolling Average

The Rolling Average file, FILENAME.RAV, contains the data points calculated for those groups for which
rolling average parameters have been defined in the Mission Data Form. You can specify up to eight
groups to be included in the calculation.
44
The group q values, averaged using the time span and time increment specified by the user, are output
to the RAV file formatted as plain text, which enables the file to be opened in a suitable text editor or
word processor. Each set of RAV data is written as a column which facilitates import into a spreadsheet
should this be required.
For an individual simulation of the mission, the Rolling Average is calculated for a specified time-span
(e.g. 30 days), which is incremented by intervals of time (say 1 day), to cover the entire mission time
(say 1,000 days). The total number of data points for this example is therefore a little less than 1,000.
These points are accumulated with the set of Rolling Average figures generated from all previous
missions simulated in order to construct a single, averaged set of Rolling Average figures, which is then
output to the file. Note that there is currently a limit of about 6,000 points for the Rolling Average data
set. If you receive an error message when setting up the Time Span and Increment, please either
reduce the mission run time or increase the Time Span and Increment to a suitable level.
Remember that rolling averages gathered over more than one mission are effectively averages of
averages. They will thus not show the extreme q values which occur in individual missions, but smooth
these out over all missions.
Displaying and Printing the Rolling Averages

To display the data as a plotted graph on your screen, choose Rolling Averages from the Results
menu. The display at first contains Rolling Average values plotted for all groups which you selected.
Using a different symbol for each group, the plot records the data points for the group, over all of the
missions, at the time intervals specified in the Mission Data form, up to the time equal to the length of
the mission. The average Q value is measured along the Y-axis of the plot and the time into the mission
is measured along the X-axis.
Configuring the Rolling Average Plot

Choose Display/Print Options from the Options menu, or double-click anywhere in the graph. You are
then presented with the Rolling Average Display/Print Option form having three tabs described below.
Group Options Tab

If Rolling Average values have been calculated for several groups, you can select which of the groups
are to be included in the plot. A group is included in the display by clicking the appropriate check box
next to the group name. When the plot is initially displayed, all groups are selected. This facility allows
the behaviour of individual groups to be reported and can be useful when the display becomes too
cluttered.
The type and colour of the data symbol can also be selected for each group individually. Click on the
symbol for the desired group and select the new symbol or colour from the form. Click OK to keep your
changes and leave the form or click Cancel to exit without change.
Display Options Tab

Enter the titles which are to appear on the printed graph. Up to 60 characters of text can be entered in
the Graph Title field. This space can also be used for entering any comment you would like to have
printed out. The default text is 'Rolling Average Results'.
Below the Graph Title, enter text for the T- and Q-axis labels. Up to 60 characters of text can be entered
in the T-Axis Label field and up to 25 characters in the Q-Axis Label field.
Set T and Q Axis Limits

You can expand an area of the graph by limiting the value ranges which are plotted. This is done by
entering new minimum and maximum values for T-Axis Minimum, T-Axis Maximum, Q-Axis Minimum
and Q-Axis Maximum in the appropriate data entry fields. The maximum values are related to the
45
Mission Time as defined in the Mission Data Form and the maximum Q value of the groups involved,
and these are displayed to the left of the entry fields.
Print Options Tab

Options available for the printed output are set under the Print Options tab.
Black and White

Choose this option if you wish to produce black and white print output.
Colour
This is the default setting. Choose this option if you wish to produce colour output on a colour printer.
Print Date
By checking this option, the date will be printed in the graph header.
Print Filename
By checking this option, the filename will be printed in the graph header.
Page Title
Up to 60 characters can be entered as a title to be printed above the graph.
Printing and Saving the Rolling Average Graph

Save Metafile
To save the graph as it currently appears on the screen, choose Save Metafile from the File menu.
After you have entered a file name in the Save As dialog box, the graph will be saved to disk as a
Windows metafile (.WMF), a colour graphics file format which can be loaded into most Windows
applications, such as word processors, spread-sheets and drawing and painting programs.
Print
When you choose Print from the File menu, the graph will be printed directly to the current printer. Use
Printer Setup to select and set up the printer you wish to use. Because the printer setup features are
specific to the printer you are using, please consult your printer's user manual for further details. Any
options you have set in the Print Options form (see above) will be taken into account in the printed
document.
Results Overlay View

For the Results Overlay View, the results data obtained from a simulation run are sorted into bands
corresponding to four performance level ranges and presented as colour overlays on the model diagram.
This form of results presentation provides a quick overview of system performance in all areas of the
model and a means of rapidly identifying the areas that are 'critical' with respect to the type of data being
viewed. The type of data to be viewed can be selected by the user, as can also the data values which
define the bands.
The Results Overlay View requires three input data files:

• The data file which defines the group structures and simulation parameters (*.MDB).
• A corresponding Results File generated by a RAMP simulation run (*.OUT).
• A corresponding Criticality File generated by a RAMP simulation run (*.CRT).
These input files provide the information required to present the simulation results in the form of a colour
coded drawing of the model on the screen.
To display the Results Overlay View for a selected results type, choose Results Overlay View from the
Results menu, then choose the results type from the following list:
46
Results type Description
1. Average time down for PM Average time per mission each element spent in a given state and
2. Average time being repaired queuing.
3. Average time in dormant failure
4. Average time up and passive
5. Average time up and active
6. Average time in queue
7. Number of times down for PM The average number of times per mission each element was
8. Number of times being repaired switched into a given state (1 to 5, or into the queue). This figure
9. Number of times in dormant failure includes the initial state at the start of the mission (t = 0) as one
10. Number of times up and passive occurrence of switching into that state. In practice, elements will
11. Number of times up and active always be in either state 1 or state 5 at the start of a mission.
12. Number of times in queue
13. Average q / Specified Q % Each element's average q value over all missions, divided by its
specified Q value when up and active. This is a measure of 'Element
availability'.
14. Mission average standard deviation The average standard deviation of the q values achieved by each
% element over all missions.
15. Average q For each element and group the average q value over all missions.
16. Average time group q = 0 The average time per mission that each group spent in a zero state
(q = 0).
17. Average number of times group q = The average number of times per mission that each group was
0 switched into a zero state (q = 0). If the group is switched into a zero
state at the start of the mission, this is counted as one switching into
the zero state.
18. Standard deviation of q % The standard deviation of group q value during the entire simulation,
and the standard deviation of the mission average q values of
elements and groups. Standard deviation figures are presented as a
percentage of the average q value for that element or group.
19 - 38. Criticality The Criticality calculations for up to twenty selected groups, including
criticality value, number of times failed, down time and MTBF.
To select the required option, click on the required result. Note that options 1 to 13 apply only to
elements, options 14, 15 and 18 apply both to elements and groups, and options 16, 17 and 19 onwards
apply only to groups.
Colour shading is used to indicate for each element or group the range of numerical values ('band')
within which the numerical result for the element or group is contained. To achieve this, the full range of
values
contained in the selected set of results is subdivided into four 'bands'. Default bands are calculated, and
'break-points' are set at 25%, 50% and 75% of the total range. If you wish, you may define your own
break-points.
Having selected the set of results to be presented, RAMP displays the minimum and maximum
numerical results contained in the selected set, and the three default breakpoints calculated. At this
point you may enter three break points of your own choice in the data fields next to the 'Band' identifiers.
The three break points, whether user-specified or default, define four bands which correspond to four
different colours. The default colours are green, yellow, orange and red - the scale may be flipped either
way using the Flip button. White corresponds to No Result : this indicates either that no result was
available (eg no failures for a selected element) or that the results are not relevant to the selected group
(eg elements outside a selected criticality group).
Click on any band colour to change it as required; use the Default button to restore the original colours.
When the bands are user-selected, the three specified band break-points (denoted b1, b2 and b3) must
be in increasing order of numerical value.
When b1 < b2 < b3, then the band selected for a particular result, x, is determined as follows:
47
• If x < b I, band 1 is selected.
• If b1 < x < b2, band 2 is selected.
• If b2 < x < b3, band 3 is selected.
• If x > b3, band 4 is selected.
At this point, RAMP has sufficient information to enable it to generate the requested display. RAMP then
redraws the model diagram in the specified colours. A 'key' is also drawn, stating the selected results
being displayed, and the correspondence of colour with the selected break-points.
If you wish to display further results on the model diagram, click on the large Select Results button to
return you to the selection form. To leave the Results Overlay View mode, click the Normal View
button. This will return you to the model builder screen.
Printing and Saving the Results Overlay View

The Results Overlay View can be printed or saved as a graphics file for documentation and reporting
purposes.
Printing
While your selected results are still displayed on the screen:
• Choose Print from the File menu.
• Make any required adjustments in the Print form and click the Print button to print the diagram.
As the diagram depends on colour for its information content, printing to a colour printer is the most
satisfactory choice, hence, when printing, the Black and White print option is disabled on the Print
Options form.
Saving
As for the model diagram itself, Results Overlay Views can be saved as a Windows metafile (WMF) or a
bitmap file (BMP).
• Choose Save Model Graphic from the File menu.
• Select either the BMP or WMF format.
• The Save As form will then open for you to save the graphics file.
Text Files and Logs

To view these files, use the options at the bottom of the Results menu.
Record File
The record file contains in tabular form the input information RAMP used to perform the simulation and
includes the following data:
• Mission data - as entered under Data \ Mission Data.
• Rolling average data - as entered under Data \ Mission Data.
• Histogram data - as entered under Data \ Mission Data.
• Resources - repair trades and spare parts.
• Element data - failure, repair and preventive maintenance data of each element.
• Group data - type and contents of each group.
• Common Mode Failure information - elements affected and distribution for any CMFs defined.
• User distribution information - the contents of any user-defined empirical failure distributions are
listed.
To exit from the Record File display, choose Exit from the File menu, or press <Esc>.
Occasionally the model file may be damaged or corrupt and will not run successfully, although these
errors should normally be picked up by the Validation process which is triggered every time a model is
saved. In these cases a 'Data Error' message may be displayed and the run will terminate. If this
occurs, check through the REC file for errors which will help you to correct the fault. Errors are normally
identified in the text by a pair of hashes (##) before and after the error message - search for them in
order to identify the error text.
48
A detailed example of a Record file is given in Appendix F.
Output File
The output file contains in tabular form the results from the simulation performed by RAMP listed in the
following order:
• Group performance data - in terms of the means and standard deviations of q values achieved
during the mission.
• Element performance data - values for means and standard deviations of element state data
(average time per mission spent in each state, average number of switches into each state) for each
element, the means and standard deviations of q values achieved during the mission.
• Resource utilisation data - maximum and minimum levels of availability of repair trades and of spare
parts.
You can browse through the Output File using the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the screen or using
the cursor and page up/page down keys.
To exit from the Output File display, choose Exit from the File menu. A detailed example of an Output
file is given in Appendix F.
Event Log
specified. The information contained in the Event Log consists of the Mission Number, the event time,
the element name and ID and the specific state change for the element. An example of event log output
is given below.
MISSION NUMBER : 1
=========================
42.54 |Ele | 14|Novo fail 2 |Up, Active to In Repair
42.92 |Ele | 14|Novo fail 2 |In Repair to Up, Active
51.16 |Ele | 7|Novo fail 4 |Up, Active to In Repair
60.08 |Ele | 7|Novo fail 4 |In Repair to Up, Active
Warning - log files can get very large - it is not unknown for long simulations to stop because the hard
disk has completely filled with the simulation log file. It is recommended that you should try using the log
file for 1 simulation only (specify 1 in the Missions to Log box) and check the resulting log file size
before logging lengthy multiple simulations. The log file is called FILENAME.LOG and is written in the
same directory as the other model files.
Buffer Log
The Buffer Log is a listing of buffer performance during the simulation. The information contained in the
Buffer Log consists of the Mission Number, the time, the buffer name and ID, the buffer level, the
nominal buffer input Q value, the nominal buffer output Q value and the actual buffer output Q value.
Note that the value of the output from any buffer group is a function of the nominal output Q value, the
nominal input Q value and the buffer level - this is why the nominal and actual buffer output Q values
may differ. A graph over time of the level in any particular buffer may be extracted from the Buffer log by
importing the relevant sections of the log file into a spreadsheet. An example section of a buffer log is
given below.
MISSION NUMBER : 1
=========================
TIME | ID|BUFFER | LEVEL| Q INPUT| Q OUTPUT| Q BUFFER
0.000 | 1|output | 100000.000| 36750.000| 35000.000| 35000.000
0.000 | 1|output | 100000.000| 36750.000| 35000.000| 35000.000
15.255| 1|output | 100000.000| 0.000| 35000.000| 35000.000
49
Chapter
5
CHAPTER 5 – MENU OPTIONS
This chapter is a quick guide to all of RAMP's menus and commands. The menus and commands are
listed in the order in which they appear in the main menu, and the means of entering data into the
various 'Forms' provided by RAMP is described. Mouse and keyboard operations are detailed at the end
of the section.
The File Menu

New
Creates a new model file ready for data entry.
• Choose New from the File menu or press <Ctrl><N>.
The outermost block of a new model is drawn on the screen and the model is given the default name
New System. The new model is now ready for development of its model structure and for population
with data.
Open
Opens an existing model for editing or simulation.
• Choose Open from the File menu or press <Ctrl><O>.
• Select the model file you wish to open from the Files list box – either RAMP 5.0 MDB files or the PDD
files created by previous versions may be opened.
It should be noted that RAMP reads and writes MS Access format MDB files. It is recommended that
any RAMP model files should be located separately from other MS Access files in order to avoid
confusion, as files created by other applications will normally fail to load due to validation checks.
Save
Saves an open file using the existing filename.
• Choose Save from the File menu or press <Ctrl><S>.
The file remains open until you select a different file using the Open command or you exit the program.
Note that RAMP 5.0 saves model files only in MDB format.
Save As
Saves an open file under an additional and different name to that of the currently open file (as shown at
the top of the screen).
• Choose Save As from the File menu or press <Ctrl><A>.
Print
Controls how the currently displayed model diagram is printed. Before using this command, you must
install and select a printer. To install a printer, see your Windows documentation. To select a printer,
click the Printer Setup button (also see Printer Setup below).
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Print Options Form
Current Printer Displays the name of the active printer and the printer connection.
Multi-Page
Single Page Prints the entire diagram on one page.
Multi-Page (Program Generated) Prints the diagram on a horizontal sequence of pages.
Multi-Page (User Specified) Allows the user to specify the number of pages used.
Fit to Horizontal Pages The number of pages required horizontally
Fit to Vertical Pages The number of pages required vertically
If the diagram does not fit onto the combination of horizontal and vertical pages then by default the print
function will fit the diagram to the number of pages specified vertically. This can be changed by
checking the Horizontal Priority tick box. By default there is no overlap between pages although this
can be increased up to 95% overlap.
Group Printing
Print Complete System Prints the full diagram.
Print Selected Group Prints the selected group instead of the full diagram.
Level Prints the diagram to the selected level only.
Printing Method
Vector Prints the diagram as a vector image.
Bitmap Prints the diagram as a bitmap image.
Colour Options
Coloured Frame Prints the block outlines in colour only.
Black and White Prints the diagram in black and white.
Full Colour Prints the diagram in full colour.
When all options have been chosen, click Print to begin printing. The Print Options form remains open
to allow further print operations.
Click Close to preserve the current settings and exit from the form.
Save Model Graphic

When you choose Save Model Graphic, the Save As form will then open for you to save the graphics
file. The model diagram can be saved to your disk in either bitmap (BMP) or Windows Metafile (WMF)
format.
Most Recently Used Files

RAMP keeps track of the model files that you last worked on. You can quickly open one of them by
selecting it from the bottom of the File menu. Up to nine MRU files will be available.
51
The Edit Menu
Undo
If you make a mistake while building your model, the Undo operation allows the last Cut, Paste or Delete
operation to be reversed:
• If the last operation was Cut or Delete, then the deleted item is immediately restored.
• If the last operation was Paste, then a message box is displayed with a warning that the new item is
about to be deleted. To continue the Undo operation, click OK, otherwise click Cancel.
Note that if you select and delete multiple items, only the last item deleted will be available to Undo.
Cut
The Cut operation allows an element or group to be deleted from the model but retained in the Paste
Buffer to be pasted in another location:
• Select the required element or group to cut by clicking within its frame. The frame will change colour
indicating selection.
• Choose Cut from the Edit menu, or type <Ctrl><X>. A message box is displayed with a confirming
the item that is about to be cut. To continue with the cut operation, click OK, otherwise click Cancel.
• The Paste option on the Edit menu will now be enabled.
Copy
The Copy operation allows an element or group to be copied from one location in the model and pasted
to another location:
• Select the required element or group to copy by clicking within its frame. The frame will change
colour indicating selection.
• Choose Copy from the Edit menu, or press <Ctrl><C>. Successful copying of the item to the Paste
Buffer is indicated by the fact that the Paste option on the Edit menu is now enabled.
Paste
To paste a cut or copied element or group:
• Ensure that the required element or group has been cut or copied.
• Select the element or group into which the item is to be pasted by clicking within its frame. The frame
will change colour indicating selection.
• Choose Paste from the Edit menu, or press <Ctrl><V>. If the Paste operation involves pasting the
element or group into a group, the Paste Element/Group form is displayed.
The order of elements within Active, Minimum or Product groups is unimportant, but in other group types
it is significant. The Paste form allows you to control where the item will be placed.
To place the item at the end of the group:

• Click the Add to End button.
To insert the item before a specified element or group:

• Select an item from the list by clicking on it and click on the Insert Before button.
• Or double-click on the item in the list.
The Paste option in the Edit menu remains enabled, allowing successive Paste operations to be
performed.
Delete
The Delete operation allows an element or group to be deleted from the model. Once deleted it cannot
be pasted into another location.
• Select the required element or group to be deleted by clicking within its frame. The frame will change
colour indicating selection.
• Choose Delete from the Edit menu, or press <Ctrl><X>. A message box is displayed for
confirmation that the item is to be deleted. Click OK to continue, otherwise click Cancel.
52
After a Delete operation, all edit options on the Edit menu except for Undo, will be disabled (greyed out).
You can set confirm options for item deletion under Options/Confirm Deletions.
Import
This option allows you to import a previously saved model into the current model at a specified location,
creating an additional unique group with unique elements in the destination group.
• Select the element or group which will contain the imported item by clicking on it.
• Choose Import from the Edit menu.
• Select the file for importation and click on OK.
The imported model will be inserted into the selected location. RAMP will check for duplicate resources
(eg repair trades, spares etc) and will report on any found. This enables the user to backtrack by using
either the Undo or Delete functions on the imported model, and to modify either the import or target files
to remove duplicates if required.
Select
The Select facility allows elements to be searched for and identified by parameters such as name, failure
distribution, Q value etc. Enter a search string for the elements you require and select Table View if you
wish to see the element data in table format. Note that some elements may not be visible if Display
Compressed is selected and the found elements are in a compressed group.
The Deselect function (Edit \ Deselect) redraws the model diagram as before. If searching for invalid
elements tagged during a Validation procedure, select Invalid Data and clear all other fields.
Figure 5.1 : Selection form
General Parameters
These fields correspond to the general parameters found in the Element Details form. Note that the Q
value is specified as a range rather than as a single value.
Failure Parameters
These fields correspond to the Failure distribution parameters found in the Element Details form. Note
that the first parameter is specified as a range and that the second parameter is not used as a search
field, in order to keep the form size down.
53
Repair Parameters
These fields correspond to the Repair distribution parameters found in the Element Details form. Note
that the first parameter is specified as a range and that the second parameter is not used as a search
field, in order to keep the form size down.
Resource/Repair Conditions
These fields correspond to the Resource/Repair Conditions found under the Repair Policy tab on the
Element Details form. You can specifiy an exact trade or spare, or select the ANY option. The Group Q
Value, Buffer Level and Element State boxes also provide an ANY option, but to specify an exact group,
buffer or element, you have to click the LIST option to be provided with a appropriate list.
The other fields on the Repair Policy tab are not included as they are believed to be less specific and
thus less useful for the purpose of identifying elements.
Select Children
This function will select all elements immediately below a highlighted group. One method of use is for
selecting all the elements in Active, Standby or Timer groups, to then be able to use Element Table View
to check their parameters.
The View Menu
Level
When a model is large and contains many Groups and Elements the display can become cluttered. The
model display can be restricted, by specifying the number of levels to display, starting from the top-most
group.
Setting the Display Level

• Choose Level from the View menu.
• The Set Display Level form appears. Click in the box and select the level by clicking on the required
list entry.
• Click the OK button to action the change of display level. The model display will be redrawn showing
the selected number of levels down from the top-most block.
Note that model building operations can be performed at any set level. However, it should be noted that
the Go To command will not show any elements or groups that are not displayed on screen.
Go To
For large systems, it may be difficult to locate a particular element or group because of the complexity of
the model, particularly as group/element text display is inactivated below a certain level of resolution. In
this case, you can use the Go To option to locate the group/element and display it on the screen.
To Find an Element or Group

• Choose Go To from the View menu.
A tree-structured list will appear containing elements and groups in the model. Depending on the
settings of the Display Level and Display Compressed options, items will be excluded from the list if they
would not appear on the display.
• Highlight the item required by clicking on it.

• Click the OK button.
The screen will show the selected element/group in a zoomed-in display. If the model is large, use the
Find and Find Next buttons to search for it.
54
Full Screen
This option displays the full model. You can use this option after Zooming or using the Go To option to
re-display the whole model.
Element Table View

The Element Table View provides a table containing details of all selected elements. The purpose of
this is to speed up element editing and checking and to allow sets of data to be pasted in from external
sources.
The table is constructed with three tabs that correspond to the Element Details form. All Element Detail
fields are represented with the exception of the Resource / Repair Conditions under the Repair Policy
tab, which are not well suited to representation in table format. Note that the Comments field is available
although it must be selected via the Element Table View \ Format \ Show Comment option. The
menu options on this view are described below.
File Menu
Page Setup Page setup options for printing the element table.
Print Preview Print preview before printing the element table.
Print Print the element table.
Close Close the element table.
Edit Menu
Copy to Clipboard Copy currently highlighted area to Clipboard.
Paste Paste items into Table - note that columns of fields with drop-down
lists cannot be pasted into.
Select All Select all items in the Table.
Show All Paste Messages Show all warning and progress messages when pasting.
Sort Table Sort the Table on a chosen column.
Find Find item in table.
Find Next Find next item in table.
Element Parameter Factors Global change utility for element parameters - see next section.
Form View Show Element Details form for selected element.
Format Menu
Table Font Set Table Font.
Column Left Set column data justification to left.
Column Right Set column data justification to right.
Column Centre Set column data justification to centre.
Header Left Set header justification to left.
Header Right Set header justification to right.
Header Centre Set header justification to centre.
Show Comment Show the Comments field on the table.
Element Parameter Factors

The Element Parameter Factors form allows you to make global changes to one or more element
parameters for all the elements displayed in the Element Table View.
After choosing Element Parameter Factors from the Element Table View \ Edit menu:
• Select Add, Multiply, Divide or Replace, depending on the effect the factor is to have on the element
parameter.
RAMP's default factors are 0 for Add and 1 for Multiply and Divide. The default entry for Replace is
blank, meaning no change. Note that if Replace is chosen, the corresponding parameters in the
Element Details will be irrevocably replaced by the values entered. There will be a warning to this effect
when you click the Apply Factors button.
• Enter the required factors in the data entry fields for any of the parameters.
55
• Click the Apply Factors button to apply the factors you have entered, or to exit the function with no
change, click the Close button.
RAMP check that the changes will not result in any invalid data. If all is well, the changes are made and
the form closes, but if not, RAMP will report the problem area.
56
Display Uncompressed
As well as setting the display level (see above) to prevent the model display becoming too cluttered, it is
possible to compress selected groups and leave the rest of the model unaffected. This is done by
checking the Compress on Display box in the Group Details form.
With this menu option is checked, RAMP will display all groups in their entirety whether their Compress
on Display box is set or not.
Display Compressed
Groups that have their Compress on Display box set are displayed as single blocks - this is the default
each time RAMP is started.
Clear Compression
Clears the Compress on Display box of all groups.
Toolbar
To display the Toolbar, which contains icons for the more commonly used functions, check this option.
When the mouse pointer is held over any individual icon, a title of the function will be shown.
Display Unique No.

This option allows the user to specify whether the unique element or group number is displayed. This
number is assigned internally by RAMP and cannot be changed by the user. It can be helpful for
distinguishing between different elements or groups with similar names.
The Data Menu

Common Mode Failures
Common Mode Failures are a means of representing plant-wide failures (eg failure of steam, electrical
supply, etc). A Common Mode Failure triggers the failure of all specified elements according to a failure
distribution set by the user. The repair time for each element is governed by the repair distribution
already defined for each element.
After you select Common Mode Failure from the Data menu, a form opens to display any Common
Mode Failures which have already been defined.
Creating a New Common Mode Failure

• To create a new CMF click the Create button.
• In the Common Mode Failure form, enter a name for the new CMF, choose a Failure Distribution
from the drop-down list and enter data for the distribution describing when the failure occurs.
• Click the Add button next to the 'Elements Affected' display. A list opens displaying all elements that
are defined in the current model.
• Click on an element to be added to the new CMF, then click on Add, or double-click in the list.
The form remains open for you to select further elements to be added.
• When you have finished, click the OK button to return to the Defined Common Mode Failure form.
At this point you may define further CMFs as above.
Deleting Elements from a Common Mode Failure

• In the Defined Common Mode Failure form, click on the CMF from which an element is to be deleted.
• In the Common Mode Failure form, click on the element to be deleted.
• Click the Delete button.
The element will be immediately deleted from the CMF list.
57
Deleting Common Mode Failures
• In the Defined Common Mode Failure form, click on the CMF to be deleted.
• Click the Delete button.
The CMF will be immediately deleted from the list.
Editing Common Mode Failures

• To edit a CMF, click the CMF to be edited then click the Edit button.
• Make any necessary changes in the Common Mode Failure form.
You can enter a new name for the CMF, change its occurrence distribution details and add or delete
elements affected by the CMF as described above.
Element Types
Any element in a RAMP model can be either a Unique Type or an Element Type. Any Unique Type
element (the default) must have data entered into it before it can be used in the model. However, this
can be repetitious and time consuming. In order to speed up data entry, Element Types are used.
These are sets of predefined element data which can be saved and reused.
Using Element Types

If you have predefined Element Types in a model, they can be used simply by clicking on the Element
Type field on the Element Details form. The drop-down list will show all Element Types defined in that
model. Selecting an Element Type will copy the data for that type into the element, overwriting any data
already there. In addition, any change to the Element Type data will be reflected in all the elements
which have been set to that particular type.
It should be noted that, once the Element Type for an element has been changed to anything other than
Unique, the data in that element cannot be edited, apart from the element name. Changing that element
back to Unique Type will allow the data to be changed again but will break the link between the Element
Type and the element.
Defining Element Types

There are two methods of defining Element Types in a model. Any element can be used to define an
Element Type – simply click on the Create Element Type button on the Element Details form. You will
be prompted for a name and the newly created Element Type will be available for use.
To create Element Types where no suitable elements exist, click on Element Types from the Data
menu. A form will appear with options to edit, delete or create. Clicking on Create will bring up a new
form which is essentially a copy of the Element Details form – fill in the necessary details as you would
for a standard element.
To edit or delete an Element Type, highlight the required item from the list and click on the Edit or
Delete buttons as appropriate. If you are attempting to delete an Element Type which is currently being
used for elements in the model, you will receive a warning message at this point. If you continue with
the deletion then any elements defined as using this Element Type will retain their data but will be
redefined as Unique.
Loading and Saving Element Type Lists

To save the current Element Types into a separate file for reuse elsewhere, click on the Save As button.
You will be prompted for a filename with a default of FILENAME_TYPE.MDB. This file is essentially a
standard model file which contains the Element Type list, Spares, Repair Trade and Empirical
Distribution data, but only has the simplest of models. It can therefore be used as a template for new
models which are required to use a given set of data.
To load a new set of Element Type data into the current model, click on the Load button. You will then
be presented with a file browse form which allows you to select the desired source file. In addition to
Element Type data, any Spares, Repair Trades or Empirical Distributions will also be loaded.
58
RAMP 5.0 will load the TYP files generated by previous versions of RAMP, but will also load element
types and related data from any valid model (MDB) file. It is not therefore necessary to create specific
files to transfer element type data between models. RAMP versions 3.5 upwards will not load element
types from PDD files until they have been converted to MDB files.
Empirical Distributions
This facility is used to specify user-defined distributions for Elements. The empirical distribution might
describe a failure time, a repair time or the time to the occurrence of a Common Mode Failure event.
Data Definition
Empirical distributions must be defined as a set of 50 points at 2% intervals which form a Cumulative
Distribution function. The probability that the event will occur between any two adjacent time points in
this series is 2%, and therefore the probability that the event will occur before the last time in the series
is 100%. It is usually good practice to make the last value somewhat larger than the anticipated mission
time unless the distribution is known to finish earlier. Do not start the distribution at zero unless you
require a chance of occurrence at time zero.
Creating a New Distribution

• Choose Empirical Distributions from the Data menu.
• Click the Create button in the form and enter the designation of the distribution in the Name field
(overwriting the default name UNDEFINED).
• The 50 values required can be entered in any order but must be distinct values.
• Click OK to save the data and close the form.
If the values are not sorted then RAMP will sort them before accepting the data for the new distribution.
Values may be pasted from another application using the Paste button or copied to another location
using the Copy button. On completion of the definition, the new distribution will be available for use on
the Element Detail and Common Mode Failure forms. Empirical Distributions may be saved along
with Element Type data as described above.
Editing a Distribution Definition

• Click the distribution whose data is to be edited then the Edit button.
• Make the necessary amendments and click OK to save your changes.
Deleting a Distribution Definition

• Click the distribution to be deleted then the Delete button.
If the selected distribution is used by any elements or CMFs, an information window will open indicating
the items concerned. If you wish to continue with the deletion, click Continue, otherwise click the
Cancel button. If the distribution has not been used, it will be deleted immediately.
Repair Trades
Repair Trades are designed to simulate the availability of maintenance personnel with particular skills,
for equipment which requires these skills for repair. As an example, a particular plant may have three
technicians with mechanical skills and two technicians with electrical skills. This would be defined in
RAMP as a Mechanical trade with 3 resources available and an Electrical trade with 2 resources
available. A switchboard may require one technician with electrical skills to repair it, or a large pump
may require two technicians with mechanical skills. Elements can specify their requirement for a
particular trade for repair, and the number of that resource.
The number of elements that can be repaired simultaneously depends on the number of personnel
available against the number of personnel required. If no repair resources are specified for elements or
if there are always enough personnel to perform the repairs, then all elements will be repaired without
delay. If the personnel are all occupied then new repair work will be delayed until personnel come free.
In RAMP, up to 50 different types of Repair Trade can be defined and each Trade can consist of up to
32767 individuals.
59
Defining a Repair Trade
• Choose Repair Trades from the Data menu.
• Click the Create button in the form and enter the designation of the repair trade in the Name field
(overwriting the default name UNDEFINED).
• In the Number field, enter the number of personnel of this type that are available.
• Click OK to save your entry and close the form.
Editing a Repair Trade Definition

• Click the repair trade whose data are to be edited then the Edit button.
Deleting a Repair Trade Definition

• Click the repair trade to be deleted then the Delete button.
If the selected repair trade is defined as a resource for one or more elements, an information window will
open indicating the elements concerned. If you wish to continue with the deletion, click Continue,
otherwise click the Cancel button. If the repair trade has not been assigned to an element, it will be
deleted immediately.
Spares
This facility is used to specify the number of spares available of each type. Spares may be specified in
any element as a requirement for repair but must be defined before they can be used in the model.
Defining a Spare Part

• Choose Spares from the Data menu.
• Click the Create button and enter the name of the spare part in the Name field (overwriting the
default name UNDEFINED).
• In the Max Stock data field, enter the maximum number of spares that are to be held in stock.
• Choose Re-order or Periodic Replacement from the Re-stocking Policy drop-down list.
• Enter the appropriate ordering data and click OK to save your entry.
RAMP recognises and works with two different types of re-stocking policy:
• Re-order - In this case, the stock usage is monitored and stocks are re-ordered when the value
entered for Re-order level is reached. The time delay between ordering and receiving the spare
parts is entered in the Time Delay field.
• Periodic Replacement - In this case, RAMP assumes that stocks are replenished on a fixed
schedule at time intervals corresponding to the value entered in the Time Interval field.
Editing a Spare Part Definition

• In the Defined Spares form, select the spare part to be edited then click the Edit button.
Deleting a Spare Part Definition

• Click the spare part to be deleted then the Delete button.
If the selected spare part is defined as a resource for one or more elements, an information window will
open indicating the elements concerned. If you wish to continue with the deletion, click Continue,
otherwise click the Cancel button. If the spare part has not been assigned to an element, it will be
deleted immediately.
60
The Simulation Menu
Mission Data
The purpose and use of the Mission Data Form is described in detail in Chapter 3. Access the form by
choosing Mission Data from the Data menu.
Setting the General Data

• Click the General tab to access the items.
• Set the Simulation Start and Termination conditions (required).
• Set the Intelligent Preventive Maintenance (IPM) and Logging conditions as necessary.
Setting the Rolling Averages Data

• Click the Rolling Averages tab to access the item.
• Select the groups for Rolling Average display.
• Set Time Span and Time Increment values as required.
Setting Histograms Data

• Click the Histograms tab to access the item.
• Define Histograms from the group list provided.
Note that the same group may only be selected twice if each is for a different type of histogram data. It
is wise to set the range limits wide enough to include all probable histogram values as otherwise
misleading results may occur.
Setting Criticality Data

• Click the Criticality tab to access the form.
• Select the groups for which criticality calculations are to be performed.
Note that some additional options for the criticality function are provided under Criticality Summimg, see
the Options Menu section.
Run
This option is used to run the RAMP Calculation Engine to produce an analysis of the current model.
See Chapter 3 for a full description of this option.
The Results Menu

Please refer to Chapter 4 for a detailed treatment of the results available under the Results menu.
Open All General Results

This option displays all results relating to elements, groups, resources and Common Mode Failures.
The results are arranged in individual tables some of which are only available if particular options are
specified; for example, the CMF results table is only available if CMF details have been entered into the
model before the simulation. Details of all of these tables is provided in Chapter 4.
Group Results
This table includes performance details for all groups including Q values, downtime and standard
deviations.
Buffer Group Results

This table includes specific data for Buffer groups, including minimum and maximum levels and number
of times each buffer is empty or full.
Element Q value Results

This table gives average Q values for each element in absolute and percentage terms and the standard
deviation.
61
Element Time in Each State
This table gives the amount of time each element spends overall in the various defined element states,
(see Chapter 7 for an explanation of element states).
Element No. of Times per State

This table gives the number of times that each element is switched to the various defined states.
Resource Results
This table gives usage details for all of the defined resources.
Common Mode Failure Results

This table gives details of how often each Common Mode Failure has operated during the simulation.
Rolling Averages
This is a graphical display of the rolling average q data points calculated for up to a maximum of eight
groups for which rolling average parameters have been defined in the Mission Data form. For a full
description see Chapter 4.
Histograms
Histograms can be produced for a maximum of ten specified groups. Facilities for configuring,
displaying and printing these histograms are available from this menu option. For a full description see
Chapter 4.
Criticality
The Criticality results for selected groups give a ranked list of the effect that each element has on the
overall operation of the system. These results are invaluable for the identification of bottlenecks and
problem areas. A full description is given in Chapter 4.
Results Overlay View

The Results Overlay View allows the results of the simulation to be displayed visually on a copy of the
model. Results are colour-coded so that high or low values of a particular parameter can be quickly
identified and shown in relation to the rest of the model. For a full description see Chapter 4.
Record File
This option displays the corresponding Record file for the currently loaded model data file. The Record
file is described in detail in the Appendix F.
Output File
This option displays the corresponding Output file for the currently loaded model data file. The Output
file is described in detail in the Appendix F.
Event Log
specified. It is described in detail in Chapter 4.
Buffer Log
The Buffer Log is a listing of buffer performance during the simulation. It is described in detail in Chapter
4.
The Validation Menu

The Validation function is built in to RAMP versions 3.5 upwards. It consists of a series of checks which
are applied to the model data and structure to ensure that the model is valid. The Validation function is
called whenever a model is saved. It may also be used to check older models, such as PDD files from
versions 3.1 to 3.3.
62
Validate Model
To validate the current model, select Validate Model from the Validation menu. You will see a form
with a check list of model items and RAMP working through them. If all the model data is valid then a
message box stating that ‘Model data has been validated’ will be displayed.
Figure 5.2 : Validation Progress form
If there are problems with the model then RAMP will display a message detailing the problem and
additional options will be made available on the Validation Progress form, as shown in Figure 5.2 below.
To check the details of the validation failure, click the Validation Log button. This will call up the
Validation Log text file which contains details of validation progress and any failures detected. It is
recommended that you should always check the Validation Log on detection of a validation failure. If the
problem has occurred because of missing or invalid model data, you may wish to fix it manually. To do
this, determine the nature of the problem from the Validation Log, perhaps printing it out to serve as a
checklist.
To correct the problem automatically, select Auto-Correct. This function will correct structural and data
problems but may in some cases do so by overwriting with default data or changing the structure of the
model. It is recommended that you should always check through the model structure and data after
using Auto-Correct, preferably in conjunction with the Validation Log so that you know where changes
have been made.
Select Invalid Elements

Elements with invalid data are highlighted on the model diagram. Also see the Select function described
in the section on the Edit Menu.
Select Invalid Groups

This function highlights group with invalid data on the model diagram.
Deselect
This function removes the Select highlighting and returns the model diagram to the normal colouring.
63
Validation Log
Click on this option to view the Validation Log. The Validation Log is updated after every Validation or
Auto-Correct operation.
The Options Menu
Model Colours
This option allows you to set the screen colours to be used for display of the following model
components:
Element
• All types of group (11 in all)
• Undefined block
• Frame colour (including lines)
• Selection highlight colour
• Background
You may also change the symbol used in front of the Element name or Group name in the model block
representation. Any single character available on the keyboard may be chosen. The default symbols
assigned by RAMP can be seen below.
Changing the Appearance of the Model

Choose Model Colours from the Options menu - the Model Colours form is displayed, showing the
current settings for the model components.
Figure 5.3 : Model Colours
Defining a Symbol
If the symbol box already contains an entry, you must first delete it before entering the new symbol.
Changing the Colours

If you would like the model to be displayed in different colours, you can change the colours to suit your
requirements and then save them so that they are used every time RAMP is run.
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When modelling in RAMP it is helpful to be able to tell the difference between block types by colour. For
each model item you can choose any one from 48 basic colours for both the block and the pattern colour
and any one from five pattern types. Additionally, you can define up 16 custom colours.
To change the colour, click on either the component name or the colour box. A sub-menu will open with
the menu options Block Colour, Pattern Type and Pattern Colour.
Changing the Block or Pattern Colour

From the sub-menu, choose Block Colour or Pattern Colour, depending on the item you wish to
change. A colour palette is displayed with a choice of Basic Colours or Custom Colours. Click on an
existing colour box to select, or click on Define Custom Colours to define additional colours.
Defining Custom Colours

With the Define Custom Colours form displayed, select the custom colour box that you want to fill with
the new colour. To choose a colour by sight, click on a colour in the colour wheel. The luminescence
(brightness) of the colour can be adjusted using the slider control.
Alternatively, enter the required settings for Red, Green and Blue or Hue, Saturation and Luminance
directly. In either case, click on the Add to Custom Colours button. The selected custom colour box
will take on the colour you have chosen.
If you do not like the new colours, then click on Cancel to exit the form and reject any changes.
Changing the Pattern

From the sub-menu, choose Pattern Type, and click on the pattern you prefer, or choose the open box
for no pattern. When the required colours and patterns have been selected, click on the OK button.
The model will be redisplayed in the new colours.
Any colours can be chosen for groups and elements, but a warning is displayed if any colours are
duplicated.
Saving New Colour Scheme

Click Options on the menu bar to open the menu. If the menu item ‘Save Settings on Exit’ is not
checked then click on it to check it. The selected settings will be saved to RAMP's configuration file
RAMP5.INI when you exit from RAMP.
Model Font
The default font for displaying and printing text in a model is 8 point Arial. An alternative font can be
selected from the fonts currently loaded in Windows.
Selecting an Alternative Font

Choose Font from the Options menu. A Fonts form is displayed with a list of available fonts and
showing a sample of the currently selected font.
Note that the appearance of TrueType fonts on the screen is closely matched to their appearance on the
printer. With other fonts, you may find a difference both in terms of size and shape between screen
fonts and printed fonts. Note also that the text size is fixed, so that when you zoom the display and
element blocks become bigger, the text size remains the same. More text can appear in a larger block,
but it will remain equally legible at all zoom levels.
Zoom Out Factor

The Zoom Out Factor controls the size of the new image when the Zoom facility is used. A factor of
50% means that the image size will decrease by 50% when zooming out.
Choose Zoom Out Factor from the Options menu - a sub-menu is displayed with the options:
• 75%
• 50%
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• 25%
• Other...
The default setting is 75%. Select one of the above preset options or click Other to enter a different
value in the range 5–99. The Zoom Out Factor is saved if ‘Save Setting on Exit’ is checked.
Confirm Deletions
RAMP issues warnings on certain actions. If you do not want to see these warnings, turn off the
appropriate confirmation option setting. If you turn off any setting, RAMP will carry out the requested
operation as soon as the command is issued.
Deletions from the Data Menu

Confirmation for Element Types, CMFs, Empirical Distributions, Spares or Repair Trades when deleting
these from the various Data Menu forms.
Deletions from the Mission Data form

Confirmation when a group is deleted from the Rolling Average, Histogram or Criticality lists.
Deletions from the Model Diagram

Confirmation for Elements and Groups when either of these is deleted from the Model Diagram.
Deletions from the CMF list

Confirmation when an element is deleted which is currently part of a Common Mode Failure definition.
Deletion of Resource Condition

Confirmation when a resource condition definition is deleted in the Element Details or Element Type
forms.
Deletion of Buffer Constraint

Confirmation when an element or group is deleted which is currently used as a buffer constraint.
Validation Messages
This option allows you to see or suppress the various messages generated during the validation
process. If the messages are suppressed then no information will be provided until the end of the
validation process, although the standard details will still be available in the Validation Log.
Repair Distribution Options

In RAMP, the two-parameters for repair distributions can be represented in various ways.
Weibull
th th
Weibull distribution parameters can be represented as either Life and Shape values or as 50 and 95
Percentiles.
Lognormal
Lognormal distribution parameters can be represented as either Median and Dispersion values or as
th th
50 and 95 Percentiles.
To select the required Repair Distribution data types, select Repair Distribution from the Options
menu. Click on the button corresponding to the data types you wish to use. RAMP will recalculate the
appropriate repair distribution parameters. These parameters are explained in detail in Appendix B.
Criticality Summing
These options control the calculation of criticality for the model. See Chapter 4 for a description of the
criticality results available.
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The Sum Criticalities for Groups option provides group criticality calculations for all groups below the
selected group, in addition to the standard element criticality values, and places them at the end of the
selected group's criticality results list.
The Divide Duplicate Criticalities option splits the criticality value for any duplicated element across all
the groups which contain it. This avoids double-counting and therefore possibly misleading results for
models to which duplicated elements make a significant contribution.
Copy as Duplicates
When this mode is selected, all copy operations result in all new groups and elements being marked as
duplicates of the old items. This is signified by a small filled square in the bottom right-hand corner of
the group and element frames. In model terms, these duplicated items are representations of a single
physical item, e.g. a power supply feeding several functional blocks. These duplicated items follow a
single history in the simulation, i.e., they fail and are repaired at the same time.
Copy Items as New

When this mode is selected, all copy operations result in all new groups and elements being created as
unique items. In model terms, these items are representations of separate physical items, albeit
containing the same failure, repair and maintenance data. These copied items act separately in the
simulation.
Copying to an Element
A special type of action occurs when the destination of a copy operation is an element rather than a
group. When a group or element is copied to an element, RAMP automatically converts the destination
element into a Minimum group and copies the source element or group into the group as the single item
in that group.
This is a useful device when, for example, it is required to group an existing group with additional items
into a new group. In this case, the existing group would be copied into an existing element, thus creating
the new Minimum group, and then additional items added to or copied into the new group.
Importing to an Element
The Import facility operates in a similar way to the Copy facility in that when an external model is
imported to an element, the destination element is automatically converted to a Series group and the
source model is copied into the group as the single item in that group.
Save Settings on Exit

When this option is checked, the currently selected options will be saved as a disk file when you exit
from RAMP. The settings saved are all those set via the Options menu. They are saved to a
configuration file called RAMP5.INI in the Windows directory. This file is read when RAMP is next
started.
The Help Menu

RAMP provides help in several ways; selecting Help on the menu bar will give you a choice of several
Help functions, and pressing the <F1> key will give you context-sensitive help about the current form or
menu.
Contents
You can view the contents of the Help system by choosing Contents from the Help menu. This window
presents a full contents list from which you can branch to any topic by clicking the relevant item. All
accessible topics in the Help system are shown in green text.
Searching for Help

The fastest way to get Help on a topic is to use the search function. To open the Search dialog box,
choose Contents from the Help menu and then Search.
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Obtaining Technical Support
The on-line help system should help you solve most problems you are likely to encounter when using
RAMP. Atkins Advantage Business Group provides additional technical help through its Help Desk,
which is available during normal working hours. Choose Obtaining Technical Support from the Help
menu for details of how to contact the RAMP Help Desk. Be sure to have details of your Licence and
Support Agreement at hand when you contact the Help Desk.
About RAMP
Choose About RAMP from the Help menu to display information about your copy of RAMP for
Windows, including the version number.
Mouse and Keyboard Operations

Mouse
The basic mouse operations are that a single click will select an element or group, while a double-click
will open the item for editing. By holding the <Ctrl> key down while clicking on elements (but not
groups), more than one can be selected, to then be displayed in the table view, or deleted.
Double-clicking on items in lists on some forms is often a short cut to having to first select the item and
then click a button, e.g. adding groups to Rolling Average or Histogram lists for Mission Data.
Popup Menu
A popup menu is available on the mouse right-click, primarily providing quick access to the same options
as the Edit Menu, plus copy mode setting, and zoom functions. Note that the right-click will also select
the item at that mouse position, thus cut/copy and paste operations can be done with the minimum of
effort.
Drag and Drop

If you right-click on an item but continue to hold the button down and drag the mouse to another item
before releasing the button, this has the effect of a cut and paste in one action. If dragging to a group,
the exact position within the second group where the button is released is not important as the form
requesting where to position the moved item will appear.
Drag and Drop is not for copy and paste operations so items cannot be dragged and dropped into
themselves or their subordinate groups. Drag and drop can be used on duplicate items but not if they
are within a duplicate group. For this operation the cut and paste options must be used.
It should be remembered that the buffer, product, quotient, equality and inequality groups cannot contain
more than two items so although it is initially possible to drag and drop more than two items into such
groups, running the simulation will prompt an autovalidation in order to work.
Zooming
To zoom in using the mouse, hold down the left mouse button and drag the resulting box over the area
that you want to display. Alternatively, right-click on the model diagram and select Zoom In from the
pop-up menu. To zoom out, right-click on the model diagram and select Zoom Out from the pop-up
menu. Note that the zooming will be centred on the highlighted element or group, i.e. where you right-
clicked, if the model diagram extends beyond the screen limits. Zoom In and Zoom Out are also
available via the toolbar. Also see Zoom Out Factor described in the Options Menu section.
Keyboard
Navigation
RAMP supports a keyboard method of navigating round the model. The cursor keys will move the
displayed section of the model when the model diagram extends beyond the full screen. To move the
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highlight around the model, use the < and > keys to move left and right along items at the same level, or
up and down if in a Redundant or Time group. To change levels, use Shift with < and > to move up
down.
Enter and Escape

The element or group form will open for the highlighted item if <Enter> is pressed. When you have
finished editing the details in an element or group form, and indeed the majority of forms, pressing
<Enter> is equivalent to clicking the OK button, while <Esc> equates to the Cancel button. As well as
closing forms, <Esc> can be used to close graphs, table views of elements data or results, and file
displays such as the event log.
Zooming
RAMP supports the <Page Up> and <-> (minus) keys for zooming out and the <Page Down> and <+>
keys for zooming in. Press the <Home> key to redraw the diagram in Full Screen mode.
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Chapter
6
CHAPTER 6 – ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION
The Simulation Process
RAMP, as a software package, has two major parts. The front end (the Builder) is responsible
for construction of the model and the interface with the user. The back end (the Engine)
actually runs the model and produces the results, which are then presented by the Builder.
The Engine
Next–Event Simulation
The Engine performs next-event simulation using Monte Carlo (i.e. random number) methods.
Arrays of the expected next event (e.g. failure, repair) are generated for each defined element
and for those groups which can generate events (i.e. Buffer Groups and Time Groups). The
Engine searches these arrays for the event which happens next in the simulated history (i.e.
the earliest event time) and then calculates the effects for that event.
For example, if an element failure is the next event, that element's q value will drop to zero.
This will change the q value of the group(s) containing the element and this must be rippled
through the entire model.
The calculations for the original element failure are completed and the expected next event
time for the failed element and any other elements or groups affected are recalculated to
update the arrays of expected next events. In the simplest case, this may mean that a repair
time is sampled by random numbers from the element's repair distribution and the appropriate
time and event are stored.
The simulation then proceeds by repeating the process of searching for the next event,
calculating through the implications of the event and updating the arrays of expected next
events. This continues until the expected next event would occur after the end of the pre-
defined mission.
Distribution Sampling
Random numbers from the pseudo-random generator are used to define the percentile point
of the distribution and thus to choose the appropriate time. For example, if the random
number is 0.719, then the 71.9 % point of the repair distribution is calculated (this might be T
= 14.674 time units, calculated from the user-entered log-normal distribution).
Results
After the effects of each event have been calculated, RAMP stores appropriate measures to
allow mission statistics to be calculated for every element and group. If the user has asked
for histogram, rolling average or criticality data to be collected, then these are also stored by
RAMP during the simulation.
At the end of each mission, appropriate statistics are calculated for each element and group
and another mission is simulated until the total number of missions (replications) required by
the user have been completed. At the end of the last mission, RAMP calculates overall
statistics based on all missions.
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How many missions?
The output from RAMP, like any other Monte Carlo package, is not exact, but depends on the
simulated time and the number of events that occur. The variability in results reflects the
random nature of the events in the simulation rather than any uncertainty about the failure
distributions - RAMP takes the model input data as exact.
Confidence
The more missions that are simulated, the greater is the statistical confidence in the average
values produced. It is therefore advisable to simulate as many missions as possible in the
available time.
The user must judge how small a statistical confidence band on the results is required, based
on the purpose of the study. For example, a high-level model intended to produce a coarse
estimate of plant productivity may require only a small number of missions to be simulated
(e.g. 10 to 50 missions). A comparative study of different detail design options may require
many more missions (e.g. 1000 or more) to be simulated to ensure that any differences
detected are real effects rather than fluctuations due to statistical variability.
The user also has the option of making the mission duration longer as well as simulating more
missions. However, it should be noted that time-dependent factors (e.g. failure rates
worsening over time) may alter the outcome.
Rare Events
Some simulated systems will have more variable performance than others. This may be
related to rare events with a large impact on measures of interest (e.g. a rare catastrophic
failure with a downtime of several months). In this case the user should examine the range of
mission results, by using the histogram and criticality data, as well as the average values over
many missions. A larger number of missions may be required to ensure that these rare
events occur a realistic number of times.
If the RAMP model is constructed to estimate the rate of occurrence of very rare events (e.g.
for a safety study), then a very large number of missions may be necessary. A target rate of
occurrence of less than one event in 10,000 years might require say 30,000 missions of 20
years each. One would expect fewer than 60 such events to occur in this modelled period, but
probably enough to ensure an acceptably small confidence band.
Termination
Normally the simulation ends on completion of the specified number of fixed-length missions.
The simulation may also terminate when a group selected by the user has changed q value a
specified number of times. This allows the user to run the simulation for as long as necessary
for a specified number of events to occur to this group. If the specified number of events do
not occur before the mission length is reached, then the simulation will be terminated at that
point.
Standard Deviation
RAMP outputs include the standard deviations of the average q results, to give a measure of
their variances. This provides a measure of the accuracy of simulation results.
The standard deviation (SD) values calculated are:

• SD of Group q values throughout the entire simulation.
• SD of the average Group and Element q values per mission.
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Values of SD are expressed as a percentage of the average (mean) q value of the element or
group over the entire simulation. The formula used to calculate SD (prior to its conversion to a
percentage of average q value) is:
1
(qi − q)
2
SD = .
n −1
where qi is the i'th value of q in the set of n q values, and q is the arithmetic mean of these q
values. If n = 1 (i.e. only one mission has been simulated or the q value has never changed)
the calculated SD value is meaningless, although it is displayed as zero.
The Modelling Process

The construction of a simulation model can be usefully divided into three distinct stages,
although the boundaries between these stages may get somewhat blurred if no formal
procedure is imposed:
• System Analysis
• Model Development
• Model Validation
System Analysis
Output Definition
The most important part of the system analysis stage is to identify the output required from
the model and the input data available. These will determine the system boundary for the
model and the lowest level of detail at which it is feasible to model. The choice of measure of
interest for the model will also determine the meaning of the q value for elements and groups.
It is always a good idea to record the basic assumptions behind any model, firstly to help with
the interpretation of the results and secondly to provide a record should the model be
revisited.
The outputs from RAMP can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on the user
requirements. Examples of measures used on RAMP studies have included the following:
• Availability e.g. instantaneously UP or DOWN, 100 % or 0%.
• Production or Performance e.g. instantaneously 123.6 tons/hour.
• Shortfalls e.g. when instantaneous production falls below a target - which may be varying
over time.
• Rolling Averages e.g. as another contract measure.
• Number of Incidents e.g. full or partial outage.
• Duration of Incidents e.g. full or partial outage.
RAMP produces tabulated numerical results for every element and group. In addition, the
user can specify the construction of histograms, rolling averages and criticality lists for any
selected groups of interest. However, the meaning of these results is entirely dependent on
the user requirements. A good definition of the requirements for the model will lead to results
that are clear and informative. Failure to define the required outputs from the model will result
in a poorly defined model and hence a set of results which are difficult to interpret.
At this stage it is also helpful to specify the case studies that will be examined. These may
include a base case model, sensitivity runs, various design, demand or support options etc. It
is usually straightforward to adapt a model to a sensitivity case and so the base case model is
normally the first constructed.
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Model Configuration
The system analysis should define the system boundary for the model and any relevant
information on external connections and operational or support constraints. This information
may include factors such as the following:
• How the system fits within a higher-level network.
• What utility supplies exist (and their assumed availabilities if appropriate)?
• Typical upstream supply profile(s).
• Demand profile(s).
• What repair manpower resources are available (e.g. number, specialities, response times,
etc.)?
• What repair philosophies are used (e.g. repair by unit replacement, in-situ component
repair, etc.)?
• What spares are held, how many are held locally and what is their replenishment
philosophy.
• What preventive maintenance philosophy is used?
The system analysis should include an assessment of those items within a system that can
contribute to plant unavailability. This may require a formal analysis such as Failure Modes,
Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) to establish how items may fail and how this affects
the system. This is necessary to ensure that the dependencies in the system reflect the real
plant. Most plant simulation involves an informal FMECA approach – formalising this process
ensures that no relevant failure modes are missed.
Model Reliability Data

The quality of the input data will significantly affect the quality of the results. There are many
possible sources of data (some of which are listed in Appendix C) but, in general, all reliability
and repair time data is subject to uncertainty. The application of generic reliability data
without careful matching can result in mean failure time errors of an order of magnitude or
more in either direction.
In general, Reliability, Repair and Maintenance data should be taken from available data
sources in the following order of precedence:
• Validated in-service data on existing identical equipment in the same application.
• Validated in-service data on existing identical equipment in a similar application.
• Validated in-service data on similar equipment in a similar application.
• Generic data sources (as listed in Appendix C).
The range of uncertainty of results due to possible data uncertainty should not be confused
with the statistical confidence range about average values or with the natural variability from
mission to mission due to randomly occurring events. If possible, the results from a RAMP
modelling study should include their range of uncertainty.
The sensitivity of the model to variation in the reliability data can easily be checked using the
Element Parameter Factors form, available from the Edit menu on the Element Table View
,which is available under the View menu option on the main menu. The simulation can be re-
run with best and worst case reliability / repair data to examine the range of uncertainty of
system level results.
Model Development
Design and development of the model can only proceed when the user has performed the
initial system analysis, and has decided what questions the model is intended to answer. This
will determine the structure of the groups within the model.
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Model development within the Builder uses a top-down approach for defining the system and
sub-systems in successively greater detail. This approach is similar to that used for the
design of complex systems and avoids the possibility of creating ‘orphans’ (i.e. unconnected
parts of the model).
General Method - Sub-Systems

To construct a successful model, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the main
functional features of the system to be simulated. The first step in construction of the model,
assuming that the system is of reasonable complexity, is to split the system into recognisable
subsystems, each of which should preferably be independent of the other sub-systems,
although this is not an absolute requirement.
For complex process systems, especially for those with some element of re-circulation, it is
often difficult at first to see how the system can be decomposed into sub-systems, because
some items of equipment may resist classification into one area or another. This is not a
major problem in itself as the assignment of equipment into one sub-system or another is in a
sense completely arbitrary – it does not matter where the equipment is put as long as its
behaviour is properly represented.
Most decomposition is based on named functional areas – for example, an offshore rig may
have an area for separation of well fluid, a compression area and so forth. Process systems
can usually be split into half a dozen or so areas in a similar fashion. If it is not clear how to
make the initial split into sub-systems, obtain a high level drawing of the complete system and
mark out proposed subsystems on it. If it is possible for the system as a whole to continue
without the functionality of the proposed sub-system, then the sub-system definition is
probably at too low a level and should be expanded. Note that it may be helpful to classify all
services of a particular type (e.g. electrical or steam supply) together as a separate sub-
system.
General Method – Further Analysis

With the main sub-system blocks defined, it becomes apparent that the definition of a model
is a top-down, recursive process. The next step is to repeat the process for each sub-system,
defining it as a set of half a dozen or a dozen separate functions, most of which would
normally be placed in a series arrangement. For example, in a steam generation system, the
functions might include Boiler Water Treatment, Boiler Water Pumping, Boiler Fuel Supply,
etc. At this stage it is often possible to include seasonal effects – for example, one set of
functions may be used only in summer, being turned off for the rest of the year.
Further recursive steps are taken until the items being defined are named equipment items or
failure modes of items. At the equipment or failure mode level it is more usual to find
redundancy (e.g. 2 out of 3 sensor systems or duty/standby pumps). It may also be
necessary to define equipment behaviour in more detail than is required at higher levels – a
number of worked examples are provided in the Chapter 8 - Case Studies. Technical
assistance with modelling problems is available from Atkins Advantage Business Group
should it be required.
Model Population
It is not necessary to enter reliability data into elements while the main model structure is
being laid out – this can be done later on using the Element Table View. However, it is
strongly recommended that a coherent and hierarchical naming scheme should be put into
place as soon as model construction starts, and that all elements should be named according
to this scheme as soon as they are created. This will assist with the population of the model
with reliability data, and will also help with interpretation of the results.
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Model Validation
Basic Validation and Data Correctness
Once a model has been developed and is populated with data, it should be validated to
ensure that it behaves as the designer intended. Validation can be carried out as part of the
development process, particularly where the model is constructed in separate sub-models, or
as a final activity. Validation is analogous to the process of software testing to ensure that the
model correctly implements the requirements defined at the system analysis stage.
The RAMP Builder has error trapping facilities to ensure that only valid data is entered on
each form and that a valid model is constructed. The model is checked to ensure that no
gross errors exist on loading, and a more complete set of checks is performed before the
model is saved or run. However, it is possible for a valid model, i.e. one that contains only
valid data, to be incorrect, because it does not correspond to the user specification.
For early checking of the model, it is usually sufficient to perform only one mission and to
confirm that the elements and groups behave as expected. Later checking may involve
simulating many missions so that more unusual events (including unintended ones) are given
time to occur. Checking the criticality results for the top-level or system group can also
indicate where an element is behaving better or worse than expected. It is also important to
check that there are no errors in models which do behave as expected – very often one error
may mask another, giving results which are apparently reasonable.
Where the model does not behave as expected, this is very often due to one of the following
causes:
• Incorrect data entry.
• Deterministic events not happening correctly.
• Items in Standby groups being in a passive state when active was intended or vice versa.
Incorrect Data Entry

Data can easily be checked using the Element Table View facility, situated on the View
menu. Selecting the Element Table with no elements highlighted will provide a table of all
element data. The Rolling Average graph will also provide a check on performance for
selected groups.
Deterministic Events not Happening Correctly

The easiest way to check for deterministic errors is to set up a Rolling Average for the
appropriate group. For groups with complex behaviour it is often useful to construct a small
separate model and check that the group behaves as expected before incorporating the group
into the main model. Alternatively, the Event Log may be used to give details of all relevant
events, although this should be used with caution as Event Log files can be very large.
Standby Group Errors

It is important to understand how RAMP deals with Standby groups and the items within them
(see Appendix A). Remember that even failure-free elements can be put into a passive state
and therefore will have a q value of zero wherever they are repeated in the model. A common
error is to have a duplicated element which is placed into a Standby group as a normally
passive item and which is also represented as an active element elsewhere – this will be
forced into a passive state in both locations.
Random Number Seed

If any Random Number Seed other than zero is entered on the mission data form, then this
seed is used to start the pseudo-random number generator. The simulation can then be
repeated with exactly the same sequence of random numbers (although this will not
75
guarantee similar results if significant changes are made to the model). This is often useful
for model validation.
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Chapter
7
CHAPTER 7 - RAMP MODELLING CONCEPTS
The Model Diagram
RAMP uses a block diagram to show how system performance depends on the performance of its
constituent parts. This is an extension of the standard Reliability Block Diagram and it enables complex
dependencies relating to flow or performance to be represented.
The model diagram may look superficially like a flow diagram or functional block diagram, but should not
be confused with these. It is possible to organise a RAMP model to correspond roughly to the functional
throughput of a process system but this does not imply any one-to-one mapping – the items in a RAMP
model normally represent those ways in which a system can fail rather than a set of connected functional
blocks. In particular it is necessary to be careful when working with flow systems – items upstream or
downstream of a buffer will not necessarily help to fill or empty that buffer.
Duplicate Items
A duplicated element or group is essentially a single element or group which appears in several places in
the model. Accordingly, any change to a duplicated element or group will be reflected in all instances of
that item. However, these duplicates will be treated as separate items for the purpose of capacity
assessment, and a single element may therefore contribute several times its given capacity to the overall
result.
Multiple Processes
It is sometimes necessary to connect together groups representing different flows or processes into an
overall 'dummy' group so that the system can be modelled. This outer 'dummy' group has no meaning,
so it can be of whatever group type the user desires (e.g. Active, Minimum), provided that it does not
affect the events in the model (as a Standby group could).
Q Value
Anyone who does RAMP modelling for any length of time will become familiar with the term ‘q value’. It
is the means whereby the concept of ‘capacity’ is included in a model. Q values are set by the elements
– each element has a q value associated with it. Each element is considered to be either operating or
not and has associated performance values of q = Q or q = 0 respectively.
Performance Units
The q values of elements and groups may be used to represent different measures in different parts of
the model, if required. For example, it is possible to specify one pump in litres per minute and another
pump in litres per hour, as long as a product group is used to convert the output of the second group (by
multiplying by a fixed value of 60) in order to make the two values consistent.
Group Types
The group type containing each element determines the rule by which the element q values are
combined to obtain the q value for the group. For example, a Product group will multiply the subsidiary q
values together, while a Minimum group will take the minimum q value at all times. During the
simulation, RAMP determines the state of every element in the model and uses the group combination
rules to determine the q value at successively higher levels of groups up to the outermost. The
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interpretation of the q value results given depends on the measure of interest selected by the user during
the system analysis stage of model design.
Deterministic Elements
RAMP models can include deterministic elements which have no failures or repairs. This type of
element may be used to represent parameters of the process (e.g. purity of feedstock or production
demand at a particular time) or where necessary in the model logic (e.g. when group q value is greater
than 150, a particular dependency is true). Deterministic elements may also be used to provide
3
conversion factors in the modelling logic. For example if 1 ton/hr is equivalent to 8.35 m /hr, a Product
group might be used with a deterministic element of Q value = 8.35 to convert from one set of units to
the other.
Flow and Flow Potential

A RAMP model describes the potential for production rather than actual production. For example, in a
Minimum group (shown with the items in series) if one item is unavailable and the group has q = 0, the
other items are not affected. A non-failed element will not be switched to a passive state (as it might in a
real plant), but will still be in the active state with a Q value as defined by the user.
Because RAMP deals with flow potential, the level of store in a Buffer group does not affect the
upstream and downstream items. Upstream items will continue to be active when the buffer is full and
there is no output flow from the buffer (in a real plant, the buffer would be continuously overflowing).
Downstream items will continue to run even if the buffer is empty and there is no output flow (although,
of course, the q value of the Buffer group as a whole will correctly be zero). It is therefore important to
work through the Case Studies provided for the Buffer groups before using them in a simulation.
In RAMP versions 3.5 upwards, Buffer groups have facilities which allow the input and output to be
constrained by elements and groups that are external to the Buffer. These facilities allow more realistic
modelling of flow – for example, an upstream or downstream failure can be used to prevent input to the
Buffer.
Time Units
All data fields used in RAMP for the specification of time are assumed to use the same time units,
although specific units are not used.
• Element Failure Distributions.

• Element Repair Distributions.
• Element Logistic Delay Times (before repair).
• Element Preventive Maintenance Up-times, Down-times and Start-point.
• Common Mode Failure Distributions.
• Percentile Times in Empirical Distributions (for Failure or Repair).
• Delay Times in 'Time' Groups.
• Spares Replenishment Intervals or Re-order Delay Times.
• Rolling Average Span and Increment.
• Downtimes in Histograms.
• Simulation Mission Length.
The same time units are also used in the output data. It is important to make sure that all time units
used in the input data are consistent – if one element has failure time specified in years when everything
else is specified in hours, then it will appear to fail much more frequently than would be expected. The
usual time unit for reliability work is hours and it is suggested that this unit should be used throughout
unless there are good reasons for choosing another unit.
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The Mission
Since RAMP is a simulation program, it mimics the performance of the modelled plant over a pre-
defined time period from known starting conditions. The time period is termed the 'Mission' in RAMP,
and its length is defined on the Mission Data form.
Because the element failure and repair times are sampled randomly from distributions entered by the
user, the modelled time period represents only one history of possible events. It is necessary to repeat
the mission (perform many replications) in order to produce a picture of the spread of possible results
and to give statistical confidence in the mean value of parameters of interest.
Alternatively, the simulation may be terminated when a group selected by the user has changed its q
value a specified number of times. This allows the user to run the simulation for as long as necessary
for a specified number of events to occur to this group. In this case, the specified mission length is a
safety net to terminate the simulation if the specified number of events do not occur before then.
Element States
Elements are the lowest level of configurable item in a RAMP model. Each element has user-specified
failure, repair and preventive maintenance characteristics. According to the data that it has been
provided with, an element may be in one of five possible states and its q value is determined by its state.
State Description q value

State 1 Undergoing preventive maintenance. q=0
State 2 Being repaired following failure (including queuing for repair). q=0
State 3 Failed, but undetected (a dormant failure). q=0
State 4 'Up' and 'Passive' (available but not currently required). q=0
State 5 'Up' and 'Active' (being used). q=Q
Figure 7.1 : Element State Table
A change of state for an element is usually determined by the element data, with some exceptions. For
example, a Standby group can force an element to switch between State 4 and State 5.
State 4 State 5
Up but passive Up and Active
(q = 0) (q = Q)
State 1
Undergoing PM
(q = 0)
State 3 State 2
Dormant Failure Down for Repair
(q = 0) (q = 0)
Figure 7.2 : Element State Transition Diagram
Some element transitions are not allowed. For example, an element can never make a direct transition
from State 1 to State 2; as the only direct transitions permitted are into States 4 or 5. See the State
Transition Diagram above for all allowable transitions.
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States 3 and 4 (Dormant Failure and Passive Operation) are applicable only to elements contained in
Standby Redundant Groups. Dormant Failure (State 3) is achieved only when an element in the Passive
state suffers a failure. This dormant failure is only detected when the simulation attempts to call up the
element for Active use.
Alternatively, the element may enter preventive maintenance (State 1) and the dormant failure will be
prevented and repaired. An element will be forced into Passive Operation (State 4) if it is in a Standby
Group and other items with sufficient capacity to meet the group’s rating are already Active (State 5).
Failure of an element from Active Operation (State 5) is detected immediately. The element then enters
State 2 for the repair to be carried out.
Element Data
In RAMP versions 3.5 upwards, it is possible to enter the element data by using the Element Table View
rather than by opening individual element forms for editing. When constructing large models, a
substantial amount of time can be saved by using the Navigation keys – see ‘Mouse and Keyboard
Operations’ in Chapter 5 for details. The drag and drop facility enables items to be “reshuffled” very
quickly.
The information for an element is classified under three tabs on the Element Details form:
• Reliability Parameters
• Repair Policy
• Preventive Maintenance
Reliability Parameters
This is the main tab for the Element Details form and is the only tab with mandatory fields. RAMP must
have a name, a Q value, failure and repair details for every element before a model can be run. It is also
helpful to specify unique names for each element where possible as RAMP will check for this and issue
an error message where non-unique names are found. This will not, however, prevent the model from
running. Note that this check does not apply to duplicate elements or groups.
Element Failure Data

The failure distribution is normally specified as one of a range of standard failure distributions – for
example, a constant hazard or ‘average’ failure rate is usually given as a negative exponential. More
flexibility is provided by the Weibull distribution, which allows a range of distribution shapes to be used.
If the standard distributions are not adequate for your system modelling problem then it is possible to
define additional 50-point distributions using the ‘Empirical Distribution’ feature.
It is important to understand the effects of failure distribution shapes before running the simulation. As
an example, many system failures follow an approximate normal distribution with respect to mean time
between failures. For infrequent events, the mean figure for the distribution may be greater than the
simulation duration. This is not a problem when using negative exponential distributions (constant risk)
as there is an easily-calculated probability of the event occurring within the simulated time. However, for
a normal distribution, with the same mean but a low variance figure, the event may not occur at all within
the simulated time, which may not be the user’s intention.
Element Repair Data

The repair time for a failed item is often a more significant factor in the loss of performance than the
failure rate, especially where some margin exists in the system whereby equipment outages can be
tolerated for a short time without loss of performance. However, accurate repair time data is often more
difficult to obtain than failure rate data and may in itself be subject to more variation, because of the
influence of the time of day, lack of maintenance resources, etc.
It is always necessary to state the assumptions used for repair data, and it is useful to run simulations
with various repair times for any items for which good data is not available, in order to determine whether
80
these items will have a significant effect on the overall system performance. If it is found that these
items can have a significant effect, it will be necessary to invest more effort in determining reasonable
repair data.
In addition to the predefined repair data distributions, the user may also specify empirical distributions in
the same way as for the failure distribution. Distributions are described in more detail in Appendix B.
Repair Policy
The information under the Repair Policy tab is divided into three main areas – General Repair
information, Standby Group information and Resource/Repair conditions.
General Repair Information

Logistic Delay Time
The Logistic Delay time for an element is a fixed time added to the repair time sampled from the
distribution of repair times. It represents the time taken for the repair team to reach the site of a failure,
time to isolate the failed item or time to obtain the required spare from store. It should be noted that this
is suitable for use only where a relatively fixed delay time, or a reasonable average, can be depended
on; if it is anticipated that the delay time will be subject to large variation then it should be included in the
calculations for the repair distribution.
Repair Good As New

The check box for Good-As-New indicates whether or not the repair of an element returns its failure rate
to be as it was when the element was new. It is only relevant where the failure rate is changing with time
(e.g. Weibull distribution with shape parameter 2.0 describing wearout or shape parameter 0.5
describing wear-in). The negative exponential distribution of failure times describes a failure rate which
does not vary with age and so checking the ‘Good-As-New’ box has no effect.
Good As New refers to the element’s failure rate and not to its Q value performance. The Q value is
fixed for each element but degradation of the performance of the overall system or sub-systems may be
simulated by suitable configurations of elements (e.g. Time groups or Active groups with elements
turned on or off by use of PM parameters).
Repair Priority
The Repair Priority is only relevant if Resource/Repair Conditions have been specified for an element,
and it is then used to assist determination of the sequence in which elements leave the repair queue as
resources become available for element repair. Priority numbers up to 32767 may be defined.
Standby Group Information

Passive Failure Rate Factor
The Passive Failure Rate factor is a multiplier for the ‘active’ failure rate, which specifies the probability
of failure for a piece of equipment while it is on Standby. For example, if a piece of equipment has a
failure rate when running of 1 in 8760 hours, and a Passive Failure Rate factor of 0.1, then it would be
expected to have a failure rate of 0.1 in 8760, or 87600 hours, when kept in a passive state. A passive
failure rate greater than the active rate can be specified, by using a factor greater than 1.
Switching Failure Probability

The Switching Failure Probability is specifically provided for use with Duty / Standby systems – for
example, a standby diesel generator may have a 95% chance of starting when required. It should be
noted that RAMP allows nested Standby blocks and that the details of performance may become
complex if several nested blocks include Switching Failure Probability or Standby Startup Delay
parameters. The probability of switching failure is independent of time spent in the passive state.
Startup Delay
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The Startup Delay switch is a feature of RAMP versions 3.5 upwards which allows direct specification of
the time required for a piece of equipment on Standby to become active. This is only applicable to
elements which spend some time forced into a Passive state by a Standby group.
Resource/Repair Conditions
RAMP supports five types of Resource/Repair Conditions which may be used to control whether the
repair of an element can proceed. Up to ten different resource/repair conditions may be defined per
element.
The main purpose of these condition types is the control of repair of simulated equipment items.
However, it is also possible to use these repair conditions in a more abstract way to provide conditional
logic control of the behaviour of the model. For example, the ‘element state’ repair condition is simply a
way of triggering a specific action (repairing an item) when another element changes to a specific state.
Elements may be included in the model which do not relate to any particular item of equipment, but
which use the resource/repair conditions to generate complex behaviour.
Repair Trades
The definition of Repair Trade resources allows the user to control how many element repairs may be
carried out simultaneously. The Trade may be an on-site specialist, a group of repairers always required
to work together or a specialist to be called in from off the site. The Repair Trade is used for the
duration of an element repair (i.e. the Logistic Delay plus a time value drawn from the element repair
distribution). On completion of the repair, the Repair Trade becomes available to repair another item.
Spares
If a spare item is required for an element repair, then the spare is withdrawn from stock at the instant the
repair commences (i.e. as soon as the element leaves the repair queue). The user defines the
maximum number of spares of each type which may be held in stock. The stock of spares may either
be replenished periodically (at a time interval defined by the user) or when the stock falls below a user-
specified level. If spares are re-ordered when the level falls below a certain value, RAMP allows the
user to define the time delay which occurs between reordering spares and the actual replenishment of
the stock.
Group Q Value
The user may define that an element cannot be repaired until the Q value of a nominated group meets a
certain criteria, e.g. q > 50, or q = 0. This might be a constraint, such as instrument air being required to
be available or boiler burners being required to be 'Off' before the element repair can commence.
Six arithmetic 'operators' can be used to define the repair constraint. These are as follows:
• Greater Than
• Greater Than or Equal To
• Less Than
• Less Than or Equal To
• Equal To
• Not Equal To
Buffer Level
The user may define that an element cannot be repaired until the level of a buffer satisfies a certain
condition. The above six operators can be used to define the condition.
Element State
The user may define that an element cannot be repaired until the state of another nominated element
satisfies a certain condition. The element state here relates to the five possible states described in
Figure 7.1. The above six operators can be used to define the condition.
Resource/Repair Conditions thus give extensive scope for controlling the repairability of elements. This
facility should not be over-used, since it is demanding on computation time. If no Resource/Repair
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Conditions are defined, then repair will commence as soon as the element failure is detected and the
element will never queue for repair.
Preventive Maintenance Data
Each element may have up to three Preventive Maintenance (PM) cycles. The data fields for each PM
cycle define the uptime between PM periods, the downtime during which PM is carried out, and the point
in the cycle at which the downtime starts. The user also identifies whether the PM cycle returns the
element to the good-as-new state. Note that good-as-new takes precedence over bad-as-old should a
conflict arise due to two or more PM cycles coming up simultaneously.
PM is defined at the level of individual elements rather than groups. PM takes precedence over every
other element state. Whatever state it happens to be in when PM downtime occurs, the element is sent
for PM and returns from PM (in the up condition), after the defined downtime. PM is entirely separate
from repair, and so the Resource/Repair Conditions defined for an element do not have to be satisfied
before PM starts.
The maximum of three PM cycles are combined to represent complex interacting PM such as monthly,
yearly and five-yearly maintenance, each with different downtimes. The element is up only when all the
individual PM cycles indicate uptime. Note that more PM cycles may be used if dummy elements are
included in a group which represents the maintained equipment item – each additional dummy element
can carry three more PM cycles.
RAMP is able to model 'intelligence' in PM to an extent but not to the same degree as a real system,
where the human decision-making capability can be used to maximise Availability. When intelligent PM
is defined in RAMP, the simulation will bring forward any PM if a random element failure occurs within a
short period before the defined start of PM, but only if the PM could be completed entirely within the
window of the predicted downtime.
Intelligent PM can be switched on or off for each element individually (on each Element Details form) or
globally for all elements (on the Mission Data form).
Groups
RAMP models use elements to specify reliability data for the system, and groups to specify the structure
and configuration. Groups define how the performance of each element affects the performance of the
entire system or sub-systems. Detailed descriptions of group operation are given in Appendix A.
Group Types
There are eleven group types in RAMP, each with its own rule for combination of q values of items within
it. These are described in detail in Appendix A and may be divided into the following two classes:
• 'Process’ type groups.
• 'Logic' type groups.
The appearance of each group type can be modified by the user – the identifying letter, colour and
pattern are all configurable under Options \ Model Colours. The group type for any group may be
changed during model building or editing to any other type, subject to restrictions on the maximum
number of items allowed for particular group types.
The following groups allow only two groups or elements as components. Note that this places no
restriction on the total number of groups and elements contained in these groups, only those items in the
level immediately below the group. The reason for the constraint in each case is the functionality of the
group, which requires only two items of information.
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Group Name Group function or data requirements
Buffer Input and Output to store.
Quotient One item divided by another.
Conditionally Greater Than One item compared with another.
Conditionally Lesser Than One item compared with another.
Difference One item compared with another.
Equality One item compared with another.
RAMP Groups that allow only two sub-items
The following groups are limited only by the overall group limit of 1000 items.
Group Name Group function or data requirements

Minimum Minimum value from all.
Active Redundant Sum of all.
Standby Redundant Sum of all to required limit.
Time Stepped activation of all.
Product Multiplication of all.
RAMP Groups that allow up to a thousand sub-items
Three of the group types are displayed on the model as 'parallel' configurations (Active, Standby and
Time type groups). All the others are displayed as 'series' configurations (i.e. horizontally across the
screen).
Display Compression
It is recommended that large numbers of elements should be split into manageable groups wherever
possible. This will make editing and maintenance of the model easier. To make the screen display less
cluttered when editing larger models, use the Display Compressed function, by ticking the check box on
the Group Details form as required. This will reduce the displayed group to the size of an element while
keeping the group name and colour. The use of the Display Compressed facility does not affect the
structure of the group in any way – it is used only for the model display.
When opening a model that you are not familiar with, it is sensible to either clear all display compression
or to view the model uncompressed – use the options under the View menu to do this.
Common Mode Failures

RAMP includes a facility for modelling Common Mode Failures (sometimes termed 'Dependent
Failures') which cause a number of elements to fail simultaneously. Such an occurrence might be
caused by a fire or a surge in the power supply causing several individual items to fail.
The CMF causes nominated elements to fail and these must be repaired individually. It is not the same
as a single cause of failures in several places (e.g. a shared power supply) where only a single repair is
required. This should be modelled by duplicating the single element in appropriate places in the model
rather than using a CMF.
Once a CMF occurs, any operational elements which are affected by that CMF are put into a failed state
and must be repaired, via the repair queue if necessary. Elements which are already being repaired, or
queuing for repair, or undergoing PM, are unaffected by occurrence of the CMF.
The user may define up to ten such CMFs, stating for each one which elements are affected and the
time distribution of occurrence of the CMF.
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Chapter
8
CHAPTER 8 – CASE STUDIES
This chapter contains several case studies to illustrate how some common situations can be modelled.
The first Case Study is an exercise for the reader to illustrate how RAMP can be used to quantify the
Availability and Productivity of different options for plant improvement.
Several of the other case studies deal with 'Logic' type groups and how they can be constructed to
model different dependencies. It will often be possible to develop more than one different group
structure to examine the same dependency. The case studies illustrated here are not necessarily the
only 'correct' solutions and you may wish to develop your own.
The Case Study models will be found in the SAMPLES directory below the RAMP installation directory
once you have run SETUP.
If the particular scenario of interest to you as a RAMP modeller is not covered in these case studies,
then it is important to define exactly the system configuration that you wish to model. Usually if the
problem can be written explicitly (e.g. in mathematical terms) as part of the system analysis stage, then it
can be modelled using combinations of RAMP's groups.
If you have difficulty in designing the RAMP model then contact the RAMP Help Desk with details of your
support agreement and a description of the problem. For users in the United Kingdom, ring 01252
738500 and ask for the RAMP Help Desk. Users in other countries should get in touch with their local
distributor as a first option. General enquiries via email should be sent to
chris.barber@atkinsglobal.com.
Please contact us if you have suggestions for further case studies which could be included in the RAMP
User Manual.
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RAMP Case Study 1 -
User Exercise
Problem
The production capability of a plant is known to be seriously affected by the poor availability of a certain
electrically-driven pump. Investigations have shown that the problem is probably caused by a
combination of two factors:
1. An inadequate sparing policy for the pump.
2. The pump is subject to severe wear-out.
Proposals have been put forward to tackle the problem in two stages:
1. Improve the sparing policy.
2. Implement one of the following changes:
a. Introduce a preventive maintenance schedule for the pump.
b. Duplicate the pump function by designing in an identical standby pump.
c. Modify the plant by adding a tank so that failures of the pump can be tolerated for a finite
period of time.
Management are happy for the proposals for improving the sparing policy to be implemented. However,
they are not willing for one of the second stage proposals to go ahead without evidence that:
1. The proposed sparing policy will not improve pump availability sufficiently on its own.
2. The costs associated with implementing one of the second stage proposals can be justified in terms
of improved performance.
Exercise
In order to assess the improvement in pump availability that can be expected by implementing each of
the above changes, it is necessary to develop separate RAMP models to determine the following:
1. The availability currently being achieved for the pump. This will provide a baseline figure on which to
compare the 'improved' figures.
2. The improved availability that can be expected by implementing the proposed new sparing policy.
This will enable an assessment to be made as to whether the second phase proposals are
necessary.
3. The improved availability (over 2 above) that can be expected by implementing the proposed
preventive maintenance schedule for the pump.
4. The improved availability (over 2 above) that can be expected by designing in an identical standby
pump.
5. The improved availability (over 2 above) that can be expected by modifying the plant to enable
failures of the pump to be tolerated for a finite period.
Data
The data necessary to develop the 5 RAMP models is detailed below:
1. Analysis of failure records for the pump indicate that electrical failures have a negative exponential
distribution (constant failure rate) with an MTBF of 1 year (8760 hours). However, mechanical
failures follow a wear-out pattern which is best described by a Weibull distribution with a
characteristic life of 876 hours and a shape parameter of 2.5.
2. Analysis of corrective maintenance records for the pump indicates that all repair times have a
lognormal distribution. The lognormal distribution for electrical repair times has a median value of 2
hours and a dispersion of 1.4, whereas that for mechanical repair times has a median value of 40
hours and a dispersion of 1.4. All corrective maintenance is believed to return the pump to a 'Good-
As-New' condition.
3. The sparing policy for the pump is such that electrical spares can be considered infinite. However,
only one mechanical spare is held on site, and this is replaced when used. The lead time for
replacement of the spare is 2 months (1440 hours).
4. The proposed new sparing policy for the pump recommends that three mechanical spares should be
held on site. When one of these spares is used, a replacement should be ordered immediately. The
lead time for replacement (i.e. 2 months) will remain unchanged.
5. The proposed preventive maintenance schedule for the pump requires taking it off line for 2 hours in
every 365 hour period. The maintenance carried out will return the pump to a 'Good-As-New'
condition.
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Note that since electrical failures have a negative exponential distribution, preventive maintenance
will have no impact on the reliability of this part of the pump.
6. The proposed standby pump will be an identical unit. However, it is believed the failure rate of the
electrical and mechanical parts in the standby state will be one tenth of that when operating. It is
further believed that there will be a 1 in 10 chance that the standby pump will not start automatically
following failure of the duty pump. It is not proposed to further change the sparing policy if a standby
pump is introduced.
7. The proposed modifications to the plant will ensure that failures of the pumps can be tolerated for a
period of 48 hours without affecting plant operation. Essentially, the pumping medium will be stored
in a holding tank and only be used when the pumping system is unavailable. Without the pump
operating, the holding tank will empty in 48 hours, after which time the plant is forced to shutdown. If
the tank were empty when the pump is reinstated, it would take approximately 96 hours to refill the
holding tank completely, thereby restoring the full 48 hours failure tolerance period. In other words, if
the pump failed again within 96 hours of being reinstated with a full holding tank, the failure tolerance
period would be less than 48 hours.
System Analysis and Hints

The measure of interest will be the annual Availability of the pumping system. Thus Q values should be
chosen so that when the system is operating correctly, the system q value = 100. When the system is
not operating the q value should be zero.
If the time units are taken to be hours, the Mission Length should be 8760 (one year for annual
Availability), and all failure, repair and maintenance data should be in hours.
For the base-case model, the study should make the system boundary around the pump. The elements
and groups which represent the pump should cover both electrical and mechanical items and use the
failure and repair data given above.
For this comparative study of simple models, the simulation time will be very short, and therefore 1000
missions should be simulated for each case.
Remember that for the Buffer (the holding tank) to refill, the input q value must be greater than the
output. See Case Study 8 for further advice. Can you use deterministic elements here?
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RAMP Case Study 2 -
Compare Production with Demand - Quotient
Problem
In many cases, a RAMP model may be used to check the performance of a system against demand.
This demand may vary with time, perhaps seasonally, so this Case Study examines a demand profile
changing over time (see Case Study 4).
For this Case Study, it is required to compare the capacity with demand to assess the 'proportional
capacity'.
Solution
This can be modelled using RAMP's Quotient type group to compare the group representing the system
capacity with the group or element representing the demand.
Note that the q value of this Quotient group can exceed unity when the capacity group is greater than
that of the demand. This can be overcome by incorporating the Quotient group in a Minimum group
which limits the maximum q value to unity.
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RAMP Case Study 3 -
Compare Production with Demand - Difference
Problem
As for Case Study 2, suppose that one wishes to compare the capacity with demand, but now to assess
the times when capacity falls below the demand. This will assess the production shortfalls, but ignores
the times when production exceeds demand.
Solution
This can be modelled using RAMP's Difference type group to compare the group representing the
system capacity with the group or element representing the demand.
The q value of the Difference group will be zero until the capacity falls below the demand. The q value
will only be non-zero when an instantaneous shortfall of capacity below demand level is occurring.
The average instantaneous rate of shortfall (i.e. units of 'q' e.g. tons per hour) will be given by QAV for
the Difference group. The average quantity of loss during the mission (i.e. units of 'q x time' e.g. tons)
will be given by QAV x Mission Length.
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RAMP Case Study 4 -
Representing Profiles of Q Value Changing Over Time
Problem
If the demand or capability is changing over time, then the system analysis stage of modelling should
define the appropriate profile to be used. This may be a progressively increasing q value, a
progressively decreasing q value, a 'cyclic' profile (e.g. repeating on an annual basis) or a more general,
irregular profile. The system analysis would describe the profile in terms of q value against time.
Solution
The representation of profiles in RAMP uses groups of
deterministic elements. These elements have 'No Occurrence'
distributions governing failure and repair (see Appendix B) and
their q value history during the mission is determined solely by
their PM parameters. These deterministic elements can be
grouped together in various ways to represent the required profile
in a 'step-wise' fashion to whatever degree of refinement (in q
value and time) required by the user.
If the required profile corresponds to a progressively increasing q

value over regular intervals of time, then a Time group can be
used to represent this characteristic. The regular intervals of time
are represented by the Time Delay parameter in the Time group.
If the required profile

corresponds to a progressively
decreasing q value over
regular intervals of time, it can
be represented by a
Difference group. The first
item in the group is a
deterministic element with
constant q value and the
second item is a Time group.
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This approach can be
extended; for example to
model progressive increase
followed by progressive
decrease, two Time groups
can be put in a Difference
group. The first Time group
models the progressive
increase and the second Time
group models the decrease.
Note that the first element of
the second Time group must
have q value zero until the
demand decrease
commences. This is easily
achieved by selecting the
appropriate PM parameters for
that element.
Note that the q value of Time groups is not naturally 'cyclic', unless this behaviour is forced by the q
value of the first element making a transition to and from zero (which can be achieved by selection of
suitable PM parameters).
A more general approach to defining profiles, particularly in cases where an irregular and/or cyclic profile
is required, is to configure a number of elements in an Active group. Each element is arranged to switch
in and out at prescribed times using the PM parameters. For example, if one wished to construct a
profile where there was a different Q value in each of twelve months and the model time units were
'months', the PM parameters for the n'th element could be:
Tup = 1 : Tdown =11 : Tstart = (13 - n)
Each of the twelve elements is then 'Up' for one month and when it is 'Up' it contributes the appropriate
Q value for that month.
Care must be taken to ensure that the time at which one element switches off is exactly the same as the
time at which the next element switches on. Here it is the individual 'Up' and 'Down' times of the
elements which construct the irregular time intervals of the profile (as opposed to the Time Delay
parameter which creates regular intervals when using a Time group).
Complex cyclic profiles where the same 'shape' is repeated at different levels on a repeating basis may
be modelled using a group representing the 'shape' with a 'multiplying factor' group using a Product
group. This can model such situations as an annual demand profile (e.g. including summer shutdown
and high winter demand), being repeated over several years but at different levels.
91
Important Points
Important points to remember from this Case Study include the
following:
• Modelling profiles of q value which change over time may be

handled using deterministic elements in Time or Active groups.
Active groups offer most flexibility because they can deal with
profiles which are irregular and not 'cyclic'.
• The time 'step' when using Time groups is regular and defined by
the group's Time Delay parameter. The 'steps' when using Active
groups may be irregular and are defined using the PM parameters
of the individual elements contained in the group.
• The PM parameters of elements with 'No Occurrence' failure and

repair distributions are used to make them 'Up' and 'Down' at
predetermined times.
• Care must be taken to ensure that the time at which one

deterministic element switches off is exactly the same as the time
at which the next element switches on.
• It is best not to make profiles too complex, since it may make

validation of the profile difficult. A Rolling Average plot of the
profile group is useful for checking that it is correct, and only one
mission need be simulated (since the group is deterministic it will
follow exactly the same history in every mission).
92
RAMP Case Study 5 -
Non-Linear Relationship of Number of Items and Output
Problem
Suppose that several identical items are operating in parallel, but the output of the group does not have
a linear relationship to the number of items in an Active state.
For example, four turbines are in parallel and the generated output depends on the number operating as
follows:
Number of Turbines Total Output (%)

Operating
0 0
1 10
2 64
3 92
4 100
Solution
This can be modelled using RAMP's 'Equality' type group. This must contain just two items (elements or
groups), whose Q values are denoted Q1 and Q2 respectively. The q value, QE of the Equality group is
then calculated as follows:
QE = Q1 if Q1 lies outside the range defined by the Group's two Range Limits
QE= Q2 if Q1 lies inside the range defined by the Group's two Range Limits
The arrangement of four turbines can be modelled by nesting three Equality groups one inside the other,
as illustrated below. Each Turbine element has a Q value of 25 and there are three deterministic
elements with constant Q value of 10, 64 and 92. The four Turbine elements are grouped in an Active
group whose q value is linearly dependent on the number of Turbines operating (it may be zero, 25, 50,
75 or 100).
If no Turbine is operating, the q value of the Active group is zero. This is also the case for each Equality
group as far as the outermost one, because q2 for each Equality group falls outside the defined range.
If only one Turbine is operating, the q value of the Active group value of the Active group is 25, and this
falls within the range of the inner Equality group. Thus QE for this group will be q2, which in this case is
93
10. This q value falls outside the range of the next Equality group so QE for that one is ql or Q = 10.
This is also the case for the outermost Equality group which represents the complete system.
If two Turbines are operating, the q value falls within the range of the middle Equality group, so Q = 64
for this and the outermost group.
If three Turbines are operating, the q value falls within the range of the outer Equality group, so Q = 92.
If all four Turbines are operating, Q = 100 for the Active group and this falls outside the range for each of
the Equality groups in turn. Thus qE = ql for each Equality group and Q = 100 for the outermost group.
Important Points
Important points to remember from this Case Study include:
• When several groups have to be nested in order to model a complex dependency, it is the
outermost group which actually represents the modelled function. Although the four Turbines were
gathered in an Active group, it is the q value of the outermost Equality group which represents the
Turbine output. When studying the results of simulation, this is the group which should be
examined.
• The two values used to define the range for an Equality group may be equal.
94
RAMP Case Study 6 -
Stacking Buffers in Series
Problem
Suppose that a system includes a processing train with buffering between several stages. It is required
to develop a RAMP model which correctly represents such a system with three stages, each stage being
separated by a buffer storage volume (i.e. two buffers in total). This is illustrated schematically below:
STAGE 1
BUFFER 1
STAGE 2
BUFFER 2
STAGE 3
Solution
Understanding this solution needs a good comprehension of the workings of the Buffer group. It must
be realised that the only factor that affects the flow into a Buffer group is whatever affects the Input
group or element directly. Similarly, the output from a Buffer group is only affected by whatever affects
the Output group or element directly.
Buffer groups do not pay any attention to events outside themselves unless constraints are set in the
Buffer Group Details form, see Appendix A for details. Accordingly, there is no point in placing three
groups in series inside a Minimum group and expecting flow to occur from one Buffer group to another –
it will not happen. The Buffer groups must therefore be stacked one inside another to represent the
system.
The two Buffer groups and the three elements representing processing stages should be structured as
illustrated below.
It is possible to nest the two Buffer groups the other way around (i.e. Buffer A as the outer group). Can
you see why this would be incorrect?
Hint: What happens to the level of Buffer A if the element for stage 1 is 'Down', how does it depend
on the states of other items?
95
Note that the system as a whole is represented by the outermost Buffer group. This is correct, because
the final downstream item (Stage 3) appears as the outlet of the Buffer group. The rules of RAMP Buffer
groups (see Appendix A) mean that there will be no output when Stage 3 is 'Down', but that Buffer B will
then be able to fill up.
Important Points
• If there are several Buffers in series in a system, it is important to model them correctly in RAMP.
Any Buffer groups in sequence (i.e. the same flow will pass through two or more Buffers) should be
nested so that the downstream Buffer contains the upstream Buffer as its input item (i.e. first on the
list of contents and appearing on the left in the model diagram).
• The Buffer group is the only one in RAMP with a concept of flow direction.
96
RAMP Case Study 7 -
Delayed Impact of Failure on Flow
Problem
Suppose that when an item fails it has no immediate impact on the production capability. It only causes
a production interruption if it is not restored to the 'Up' condition before a certain time (T) has passed.
An example of this situation is an agitator in a tank. If the agitator fails, then the contents of the tank will
begin to settle but production can continue for a period until the build-up of solids is too great.
Depending on the type of liquid, amount of solids in suspension, size and shape of the tank, an agitator
failure might be tolerable for say eight hours before the process must be stopped. Any repair completed
in less than this time would not cause a process failure.
Solution
It is important to differentiate the time delay associated with the failure from any process buffering. In
the example above, it is not the holding capacity of the tank which is significant but the tolerable failure
time.
The process of designing the RAMP model to represent this condition involves the following stages:
• Define the required Q value for normal output.
• Define the time for which unavailability of the item may be tolerated.
• Define how quickly this tolerable time may be recovered following restoration of the failed item.
In the example of the tank agitator, suppose that the answers to the above questions are as follows:
• In normal operation the q value is to be 100.
• The failure is tolerable for eight hours (the time units of the RAMP model are to be hours).
• If the failure lasts for more than eight hours, it will take 16 hours to restore the tolerable failure time
to eight hours.
The solution is to use a Buffer group and a dummy element in the following way:
The downstream item in the Buffer group is a dummy element with a constant Q of 100. This makes the
q value of the group in normal operation equal to 100.
The capacity of the Buffer is set to 800. Thus on failure of the upstream item (representing the agitator)
the Buffer can maintain output for (800/100) = 8 hours.
The Q value of the upstream item is set to 150. If the Buffer is completely empty following a failure, then
the net inflow into it is (150 - 100) = 50. This will completely refill the empty Buffer in (800 / 50) = 16
hours.
The upstream item could, of course, be a group rather than an element. For example, it could here be a
Minimum group containing different failure modes of the agitator (e.g. motor failure, drive shaft failure,
impeller failure).
Note that in a situation such as this, it will usually be possible to plan preventive maintenance actions
such that they never cause an interruption in production. The PM downtime may therefore be left out.
97
Important Points
Important points to remember from this Case Study include the following:
• Cases where there is a delay between an item failing and there being any impact on the process
may be modelled in RAMP using a Buffer group with a dummy downstream element
• Where a PM action can be planned such that it will never affect the production, then it may be left
out. Care must be taken if the PM downtime would in fact cause a downstream buffer to be drawn
down
• The process of designing the RAMP model to represent this condition involves the following stages:
1. Defining the required Q value for normal output (to size the Q value of the downstream dummy
element).
2. Defining the time for which unavailability of the item may be tolerated (to size the Buffer group).
3. Defining how quickly this tolerable time may be recovered following restoration of the failed item
(to size the Q value of the upstream element representing the item subject to failure).
98
RAMP Case Study 8 -
Availability of Waste Acceptance Function
Problem
Suppose that the system being modelled is a waste treatment plant. The definition of Availability is that
the plant is Available when it is able to accept sufficient input waste. This is different from plants which
are defined as Available when they are producing sufficient output.
The first part of the plant is a holding tank which is maintained as empty as possible. When items
downstream of this tank are unavailable, input can still be accepted by allowing the level in the tank to
rise until it is completely full.
The problem is to model this situation correctly, so that downstream failures are tolerable and that the
plant becomes unavailable when the holding tank becomes full.
Solution
The solution to this problem is to model the plant in reverse. Upstream items are shown as the outlet of
the plant and downstream items as the inlet.
The modelled flow can be thought of as representing 'emptiness', and Buffer 'fullness' then represents
their 'emptiness'!
In RAMP, the q value of a Buffer group drops to zero either when its outlet side has zero q value or when
it is empty and the inlet q value is zero. The reversed Buffer will correctly represent the plant because
the q value will drop to zero when the Buffer is empty (full of 'emptiness').
This way of using Buffers can take some getting used to - looking at a simple model may help.
The downstream item in the (reversed) Buffer group is the demand (i.e. the waste arriving at the plant).
The inlet item is the plant processing system, which in real flow terms is downstream of the holding tank.
Of course, the waste treatment plant may include much more equipment than shown in this simple
example. If there are several buffering volumes in series, then all of them should be reversed and
nested as shown in Case Study 6.
Important Points
• If the system analysis stage concludes that the plant is unavailable when it is unable to accept input
then it may be necessary to reverse the representation of the system. This will only be necessary
where flow direction is important and RAMP's Buffer group is the only type which has a concept of
flow direction.
• If the system model must be reversed to represent Availability correctly, then Buffers in series
should be stacked all in the reverse direction.
99
RAMP Case Study 9 -
Intermittent Flow Increase
Problem
Suppose that we have a pumping system which feeds water into a tank – this is normally fed at a
constant rate but occasionally we need to increase the flow into the tank by a factor of 2 for a short
period.
Solution
There are several ways to model this type of system. The most obvious way is to model the flow into the
buffer as an Active Redundant group, containing two elements, the first being the ‘Constant Flow’
element and the second being turned on and off by a suitable PM schedule. However, for some
applications, this would have the disadvantage of being too regular – it is not possible to specify a
distribution whereby the extra flow will occur in an irregular if statistically predictable way.
A slightly more complex solution to the problem is shown below. The input to the buffer is modelled as
an active redundant group, and the steady flow is modelled by an element (‘Normal Process’ in the
diagram below) which has a q of 100 and some required failure and repair data. This element is
duplicated into the product group (‘Normal Process x 2) in the second branch of the Active Redundant
group.
When the ‘steady flow’ element is up, the q value of the second branch of the Active Redundant group,
which is a Difference group, is zero, because there is no difference between its two components.
However, when the ‘steady flow’ element fails, the output of the Difference group rises to 200 for as long
as the failure continues.
Important Point
The distribution of flow in this model is set entirely by the failure and repair data for the ‘steady flow’
element – when this element is up, the flow rate is 100. When this element is down, the flow rate is 200.
100
RAMP Case Study 10 -
Seasonal Changes
Problem
Plant and equipment which is not installed inside a building is often subject to the effects of weather,
which can change performance. For example, an air-cooled heat exchanger in a large process system
will be more effective at cooling process fluid during the winter than during the summer. In this case, we
can say that the performance or throughput capacity of the system will change according to the time of
year, and the RAMP model should reflect this change.
Solution
The simplest solution to this problem is to create several instances of the original equipment item, with
different capacities which reflect the various seasonal factors, each of which is turned on and off by a
suitable PM schedule.
For example, in the simple model below, it is found that HX 1 performs better in the summer than in the
winter, and therefore that it will be necessary to represent it as two separate items with different q
values.
This is easily accomplished by turning the element HX1 into a group with two elements, HX1 – Summer
and HX1 – Winter, as shown below.
To turn the two new elements off and on at the appropriate times, it is necessary to set the PM details for
the two elements. If we assume that Winter and Summer both last for 6 months, and that Summer
starts one quarter of the way through the year, then the following details should be entered. To model
more than two seasons, add elements as required.
Element Up Time (hours) Down Time Down Time Starts At

(hours) (hours)
HX1 – Summer 4380 4380 6570
HX1 – Winter 4380 4380 2190
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RAMP Case Study 11 -
Complex Flow Distributions
Problem
Occasionally it is necessary to model variable flow in more detail – perhaps there is a set of
meteorological data which must be included in a model. For a simple example, assume that we have
five levels of flow that must be modelled. The obvious solution is to create five separate events, each of
which represents a different flow level, and to put them in parallel in an Active Redundant group.
However, this is not a good solution because there is the possibility of coincident events which may raise
the flow level above that which is required. In addition, it is difficult to specify the exact behaviour of the
flow simulation because all possible combinations of the five levels have to be taken into account.
Solution
This solution to the problem uses RAMP’s duplication facility to combine levels of switching in such a
way as to produce a realistic connected flow curve. By ‘connected’ curve is meant a curve which must
travel through intermediate values before reaching the highest levels. This is considered to be more
realistic than a curve which may make discontinuous transitions from low to high levels, especially where
hydraulic systems and storage are concerned.
102
The element parameters required to make the above model work may be obtained by considering the
lowest possible flow state to be always active, and calculating the probability of an additional flow state
being active which sums with the first flow state to the next level of flow. This can then be extended to
provide as many additional flow levels as may be required. The combined probability for each flow state
is obtained by putting duplicates of all the elements which represent flow level probabilities for lower
levels into a product group together with an element which represents the incremental flow probability for
the current level. Since each level has one more element than the previous level, the profile group as a
whole assumes the shape of a pyramid.
The base flow rate in the above model is obtained when none of the product groups from ‘Level 2’ to
‘Level 5’ are active. At this time, the overall flow rate of the model is given by the Q value of the element
‘Zero Flow’ multiplied by the Q value of the group ‘Level 1’ – both of these elements are failure free.
Note that the elements ‘Level 2 Constant’, ‘Level 3 Constant’, ‘Level 4 Constant’ and ‘Level 5 constant’
are also failure free and serve only to provide constant multiplying factors.
The next level of flow is attained when the element ‘Level 2 Variable’ is active. When this occurs, the
group ‘Level 2’ produces an additional output which is added to the output from the element ‘Level 1’.
The failure and repair details for the element ‘Level 2 Variable’ are calculated so that the Level 2 output
will occur fairly frequently.
For the next level of flow to occur means that both Level 2 and Level 3 must both be active. However,
this will only occur if both of the elements ‘Level 2 Variable’ and ‘Level 3 Variable’ are active at the same
time. Accordingly, the Level 3 output will be greater than the Level 2 output but will occur less frequently.
Similarly, Level 4 requires three of the elements to be active at the same time, and so on. It is possible
to construct a profile with many more levels than this if detailed representations are required.
Model Construction
The first stage in the construction of this type of profile is to determine which flow levels are to be
represented – the exact number required will depend on the data required. When constructing a set of
flow levels it may be convenient to divide the data into bands according to the level obtained and then to
derive an amount of time that the model spends in each band, or alternatively to set up an arbitrary set
of levels with an equivalent amount of time spent in each level, and then to calculate an average flow
figure for each level so as best to represent the original data. For the construction of this type of model,
the second approach is often easier.
The probability of the model being in any particular flow state is illustrated in the table below. Since the
profile is additive, the Level 1 flow level consists only of the q value obtained from the Level 1 element.
However, Level 2 consists of the Level 1 and the incremental Level 2 q values added together, whereas
Level 5 consists of Level 1 + Level 2 + Level 3 + Level 4 + Level 5. The q values for all levels above 1
are therefore incremental and are expressed in the elements ‘Level 1 Constant’, ‘Level 2 Constant’, etc.
Flow Total Underlying Multiplying

Level Duration Duration Factor
Level 1 20% 100% 1
Level 2 20% 80% 0.8
Level 3 20% 60% 0.75
Level 4 20% 40% 0.67
Level 5 20% 20% 0.5
The probability of each level occurring is dependent on the previous levels. In the table, Level 1 is
always active, but the probability of Level 2 is only 80%. Level 2 is therefore obtained by using an
element which has a probability of being active 80% of the time. Similarly, Level 3 is obtained by using
an element which is active 75% of the time. The active elements are duplicated across the product
groups as shown and are called ‘Level 2 Variable’, ‘Level 3 Variable’, etc. The q values of these
elements are all equal to 1, with the flow rate being set by the ‘Level n Constant’ elements.
103
Appendix
A
APPENDIX A – GROUP TYPES
RAMP works with eleven different types of group. This Appendix presents a more detailed view of the
operation and principles of these group types.
Group Type Name Q value calculation

A Active Redundant Min [Rating, (q1 + q2 + … + qn)] unless qA < Cut-off then qA = 0
S Standby Redundant As for Active Redundant, but see note below
M Minimum Min [q1, q2, q3, …. Qn]
B Buffer Q2 if the buffer store is not empty, min[q1, q2] if the buffer store
is empty
T Time Increment by qn after time T
G Conditionally Greater Than If q1 > q2 then q = q1 else q = 0
L Conditionally Less Than If q1 < q2 then q = q1 else q = 0
D Difference max[ql - q2, 0]
E Equality Lower Limit to Upper Limit
q1 if q1 lies outside the range
q2 if q1 lies inside the range
P Product q1 x q2 x q3 …. x qn
Q Quotient q1/q2
Figure A.1 : Group Types
The Group Types Available in RAMP

There are two main types of group available in RAMP – the Process or Flow type and the Logic type.
The Process groups consist of the following types:

• Active Redundant
• Standby Redundant
• Minimum
• Buffer
• Time
The Logic groups consist of the following types:

• Greater Than
• Less Than
• Difference
• Equality
• Product
• Quotient
104
Process Groups
The Active Redundant Group

An Active Redundant group is one in which all items are operating (active) if not failed, but not all items
need to be up and running for the group to function. For an Active Redundant group, the output qA is
calculated from the sum of the q values of its individual components, but may be limited to a maximum
value R specified by the user which is termed the rating of the group. In addition, a cut-off value, C, may
be defined, with the result that if the total output of the group falls below the cut-off value, the group
output is set to zero. Thus the following relationships apply:
qA = min [R, (ql + q2 + q3 … + qn.)]

unless qA < C, then qA = 0
This group is used to model a number of components (e.g., generators) each of which contributes to the
total performance of the system. The maximum output of the group is termed its rating, and the group is
deemed to be incapable of performing, and thus taken out of service, if its output falls below a defined
cut-off level. In contrast with the Standby Redundant group, it is assumed that all items that are capable
of operating will be operating.
The Standby Redundant Group

A Standby Redundant group is one in which all items are deemed to be functional if not failed, but not all
items are up and running at any one time. If, for example, the required rating for the group has been
met by other items in the group, any items whose contribution to the output is currently not needed (are
redundant) can be shut down (placed in standby).
Calculation of the output qS of a Standby Redundant group is identical to that for an Active Redundant
group, as described above.
Care should be exercised when including one and the same element in more than one Standby group. If
the simulation requires the element to be active in one group and passive in the other, the resulting
conflict will be resolved by the program preferentially selecting the active state.
Note: When using Standby groups, remember RAMP's rules for placing items in the Active or Passive
states. These can be summarised as follows:
Only sufficient elements in the standby group are put into an Active state to meet the group's specified
rating. Elements are taken in order of priority from the top of the group - that is, the first items in the list
of group contents are preferred - and when the rating is satisfied, the remaining items are left in a
Passive state.
• The same element may appear in more than one Standby group in the model. Care should be taken
to avoid a conflict arising because the element is required to be Active in one group and Passive in
another. If such a conflict is detected, the program will select the Active state in preference to the
Passive state.
• An element in a Standby group may also appear in another non-Standby group. In this case, the
state of the element is determined solely by the requirements of the Standby group. The fact that
the element appears elsewhere in non-Standby configuration does not force the Active state of the
element.
• Where a Standby group contains other Groups (as opposed to only elements) the Standby group
works in a similar way. Working in sequence through items contained in the Standby group,
sufficient initial items are set Active to satisfy the group's rating and any remaining items are set
Passive. Putting a Group into a Passive state corresponds to setting every 'Up' element contained
in the group to a Passive state. Putting the group into an Active state corresponds to setting
sufficient 'Up' elements into the Active state to achieve the rated output of that group. If the Standby
group contains other Standby groups, some contained elements may therefore intentionally be left in
the Passive state.
105
The Minimum Group
The q value for a Minimum group is calculated from the expression:
qM = min[q1, q2, q3, …. qn]
where q1 to qn are the q values of the individual components (elements or groups) of the group.
This group type is most commonly used to represent a situation in which performance is limited to the
capability of the worst component of a group of associated components. This will automatically occur in
any series configuration of equipment, where all the equipment items are handling the same substance,
whether it is water, biscuits or information. Accordingly, the Minimum group can also be treated as the
basic series group.
The Buffer Group

The Buffer group is used to model buffer storage, which can frequently be found in manufacturing plants
in order to maintain production levels regardless of fluctuations in output or failure of primary production
stages. It can also be used to model delays in operation. A typical arrangement is shown in Figure A.2
below.
P1
Buffer
P2
Figure A.2: Typical Buffer Group Arrangement
The Buffer group has two items in it (which may be either groups or elements). The Input stage,
represented by P1 above, feeds the buffer store, and this in turn supplies the Output P2. Note that the
buffer level can only be affected by the input and output specific to that group – it is not affected by
anything outside the group. However, it is possible to set constraints on the Buffer input and output –
see below for more details.
The q value of the Buffer group is evaluated to represent the overall flow capacity of the above
arrangement. The q value of the Buffer group, qB, is evaluated as:
qB = q2 if the buffer store is not empty

qB = min[ql, q2] if the buffer store is empty
where q1 and q2 are the q values of P1 and P2, respectively. The value of qB is calculated
automatically by the program, which constantly monitors the level of the buffer store.
106
The capacity and initial fill level of the Buffer group are set by the user when specifying the group.
In RAMP versions 3.5 upwards the Buffer group specification has constraints which set dynamic limits
on the input and output levels. It is now possible to limit the q value of the input or output to the q value
of another specified element or group. This allows the user to constrain flow into or out of the Buffer
group by other items in the model without having to include them in the group, and hence allows for
more realistic flow modelling.
The output data generated when a simulation is run in RAMP includes the average time per mission and
the average number of times per mission that the buffer was empty and the average time and number of
times it was full to its maximum capacity. RAMP also outputs the minimum and maximum levels of the
buffer store averaged over all missions. The generation of a Buffer Log is controlled on the Mission
Data form.
The Time Delay Group

In a Time Delay group consisting of the items ql to qn, the q value of the output, qT, is calculated
according to the following method:
If ql = 0 then qT = 0
when after a delay of time T q1 becomes > 0 then qT = ql

when after a further delay of time T ql is still > 0 then qT = q1 + q2
when after a further delay of time T ql is still > 0 then qT = ql + q2 + q3
and so on until qT reaches its maximum value of ql + q2 + q3 … + qn, or returns to zero, because q1
returns to zero.
The Time Delay group can be used to model a stepwise approximation to the gradual build-up in
capacity of a process plant following repair, shut-down or switching from the standby to the active state.
Each mission will start assuming that no time delay has yet elapsed, i.e., each Time Delay group will
have to build up to its maximum value at the beginning of each mission.
Beware of putting several Time Delay groups into a Standby Redundant group. RAMP determines
which items in a Standby group are required to be active and which passive at any time by checking the
instantaneous capacities of these items so as to meet the rating of the Standby group. In this situation,
the program may attempt to reach the rating of the group by successively switching on all Time delay
groups (as their capacity at the time of switch-on is zero), instead of switching on just one of these and
waiting for the output of this group to rise to its maximum, which may be sufficient to meet the rating.
The correct way to model this situation is to place the Time Delay outside of the Standby group, usually
as a Time Delay group in a Minimum configuration with a Standby group.
107
Logic Groups
The Conditionally Greater Than Group

This group must contain exactly two items. The q value of the output of this group, qG is calculated from
the q values of the two items q1 and q2 as follows:
If ql > q2 then qG = ql
else qG = 0
The Conditionally Less Than Group

This group is complementary to the Conditionally Greater Than group. The q value of the output, ql is
calculated from the q values of the two items ql and q2 as follows:
If ql < q2 then qL = q1
else qL = 0
These two groups have been included to allow complex systems to be modelled more easily – for
example, they can be used to balance loads or to compensate for failure of a subsystem by increasing
the output from another subsystem. These situations cannot always be modelled using Standby
Redundant groups.
Conditional groups can also be used for modelling non-linear performance degradation as a function of
the number of components that have failed. A further use is to 'isolate' a part of a model used purely to
obtain an intermediate numerical result for, say, the availability of a subsystem, but which is not relevant
to the overall system model.
The Difference Group

This group must also contain exactly two items. Its q value, qD, is calculated from the expression:
qD = max[q1 - q2, 0]
That is, the difference between the values of the two items in the group unless the difference is negative,
in which case qD is set to zero.
The Difference group is particularly useful for monitoring lost production, i.e., demand minus capacity.
The Equality Group

The Equality group must contain exactly two items (elements or groups). The q value of the output, qE,
is calculated from the values ql and q2 of the two items in the following way:
qE = ql if ql lies outside the range PA to PB

qE = q2 if q1 lies inside the range PA to PB
where PA and PB are two user-defined group parameters. PA and PB may

be specified in any order and may be equal to each other.
Where a non-linear relationship exists between the number of parallel items operating and their total
output, this situation can be modelled using the Equality group. For example, four turbines are operating
in parallel and the generated output depends on the number of turbines operating as shown in the
following table.
Number of Turbines Operating Total Output

0 0%
1 10%
2 64%
3 92%
4 100%
108
This can be modelled as follows:
The four turbines are denoted Tl to T4 and each is represented by a single element whose Q value is 25
when up and running. These are grouped with an element C10 with a constant Q value of 10 as an
Equality group in which the relationship PA = PB = 25 has been defined. This 'nesting' of groups is
continued with elements C64 (Q = 64, PA = PB = 50) and C92 (Q = 92, PA = PB = 75) to model the
complete group of parallel turbines. This example is described in more detail in Case Study 5, in
Chapter 8.
The Product Group

As the name suggests, the q value for the output of a product group is calculated from the product of its
components as follows:
qp = q1 x q2 x q3 x … x qn
This group type is often used for multiplying the output of a group by a constant factor – for example, if a
sub-system is to be imported into a model which uses different capacity units (for example litres per hour
instead of litres per day), then a product group can be used to convert the output of the sub-system.
The Quotient Group

This group must contain exactly two items. The q value of the output of a quotient group is calculated
from the ratio:
qQ = q1 / q2
where ql is the q value of the first item in the group and q2 the q value of the second.
The quotient group outputs a q value that represents the availability of a system, that is, the capacity of
the system divided by the demand placed upon the system. Thus, q1 represents the capacity of the
system and q2 the demand placed upon it. Note that the value qQ can exceed unity. If it is irrelevant that
the capacity can exceed the demand and the user wishes for this reason to limit the value of qQ to 1,
then this restriction should imposed by the user. This is achieved by embedding the Quotient group in a
Minimum group of two, in which the other item is an element with a constant q value of 1.
Note that if both ql and q2 are equal to zero, the quotient value is set to 1.
109
Appendix
B
APPENDIX B – DISTRIBUTIONS
RAMP allows the user to select from five built-in distribution types for specifying element failure and
repair times and CMF occurrence times. These are:
• No Occurrence (failure-free or un-repairable).
• Fixed Time of Occurrence.
• Weibull.
• Negative Exponential.
• Log Normal.
In addition to these distributions, the user can specify up to 30 'Empirical' distributions of their own (e.g.
from actual failure time records).
This appendix describes each type of distribution and discusses important factors which may affect the
choice of distribution type.
No Occurrence
If the distribution type selected is 'Failure-free' (in element or CMF Failure Distribution) or 'Unrepairable'
(in element Repair Distribution) then no failure or repair event will occur. This distribution is used mainly
for defining elements as irreparable or for making an element with constant q value (e.g. q = 50
throughout the mission).
This distribution may be used for an element which has PM cycles defined. These PM cycles will govern
when the element is 'Up' and when it is 'Down' and it will follow a deterministic history during simulation.
For example, an element which is failure-free might have a PM cycle of 12 hours up time and 12 hours
downtime to be 'Up' only during the day.
Care must be taken when failure-free elements appear in a Standby group and a non-Standby group.
The Standby group may force them into the Passive state (i.e. q = 0) and this will hold true wherever the
element appears in the model. It may therefore be necessary to have more than one deterministic
element with q = 50 if one of them appears in a Standby group.
Fixed Time of Occurrence

If the distribution type selected is 'Fixed' then the failure or repair will occur after exactly the time
specified by the user.
This distribution may be used to make events happen at predetermined times (e.g. the element repair is
always completed after exactly 7.5 hours).
The 'Fixed' distribution requires one parameter to be entered by the user and this defines the time of
occurrence.
110
Weibull
RAMP supports the 2-parameter Weibull distribution for both element failure and repair times. The
Weibull is a family of distributions and can represent various failure distributions, from decreasing rate
(e.g. wear-in), through constant failure rate to increasing rate (e.g. wear-out) according to the choice of
the distribution's two defining parameters.
For the Weibull distribution, the cumulative distribution function F(t) is given by:
F (t ) = 1 − e − ( t / h )
Β
where h = characteristic life (e.g. for failure times) and B = shape parameter.
For any Weibull distribution, the probability of occurrence prior to t = h (the characteristic life) is equal to
-1
0.632 (1 - e ). Thus h will always divide the area under the Weibull Probability Density Function into
0.632 and 0.368 for all values of B (the shape factor). This is why h is called the characteristic life.
The mean of the Weibull distribution is given by:
Β +1
mean = η.Γ
Β
where Γ indicates the Gamma function.
When B is less than 1.0, the rate is decreasing with time from new or repair (e.g. infant mortality or burn-
in). When B is greater than 1.0, the rate is increasing with time (e.g. wear-out). When B is 3.44, the
Weibull distribution approximates to a Normal distribution.
When B is exactly 1.0, the Weibull distribution is a negative exponential and this corresponds to a
constant rate (e.g. constant failure rate or constant repair rate as appropriate). The negative exponential
distribution is discussed below.
The Weibull distribution requires the user to enter two parameters, namely η (the characteristic life) and
B (the shape factor). Where the Weibull is used for a repair distribution, the user may also wish to
define the distribution by alternative measures, namely the 50 and 95 percentile points of the distribution.
At the level of individual failure modes (e.g. fracture of a bearing, wear of a seal) the Weibull distribution
will often be the best choice to describe the failure times. At higher levels (i.e. where the RAMP element
represents an item with several failure modes) and the item is repairable, the negative exponential
(constant failure rate) distribution will usually be more appropriate.
If the modelling exercise is examining the effect of Preventive Maintenance on item failure rates (and
thus system Availability) then it is vital that accurate failure distribution information is available. A PM
activity which returns the item failure rate to a 'good-as-new' condition will only be advantageous if the
item was wearing out (e.g. Weibull with B greater than 1.0).
Negative Exponential
The negative exponential distribution is a special case of the Weibull distribution where the shape
parameter is exactly 1. This describes the constant failure (or repair) rate condition and the
characteristic life is equal to the mean of the distribution.
Where modelling is conducted at a high level and elements represent complete items rather than
individual failure modes, it will often be appropriate to use the negative exponential for the failure
distribution (constant failure rate).
Although individual components of an item may have an increasing failure rate (e.g. a seal wearing over
time), the combination of many failure modes of various failure characteristic distributions will often give
a broadly constant failure rate for a repairable item. The data on failure distributions from most sources
111
(including many of those identified in Appendix C) is in the form of constant failure rates representing
average achievements.
The negative exponential requires the user to enter one parameter which is the mean (equal to the
characteristic life) of the distribution.
Log Normal
The log normal distribution is a skewed distribution which applies where the logarithms of a variable are
normally distributed. The log normal is a family of distributions of different 'spread' or dispersion.
The log normal is widely used to describe repair times. If the RAMP element represents an item of
equipment (rather than a single failure mode) then its failure distribution describes the item failure times
for all failure modes, from minor failures which can be rapidly repaired to major failures requiring an
extended downtime. It is the RAMP element repair distribution which describes these variations.
The log normal distribution is defined by two parameters, relating to the mean and to the spread. In
RAMP the user may specify a log normal distribution in one of two ways, namely:
Median and Dispersion
• 50 and 95 percentile points
The median of the distribution is the same as the 50 percentile point and also the geometric mean. The
arithmetic mean of the log normal is given by the following expression:
σ c2
2
mean = xm .e
where xm is the Median (50 percentile) of the log normal distribution and σe is the Dispersion of the
log normal distribution.
The 95 percentile of the log normal distribution is given by the following expression:
95 percentile = xm .e (1.64495σ e )
Note that 1.64495 is the 95 percentage point of the normal distribution (i.e. 95% of the normal
distribution lies below mean + (1.64495 x Standard Deviation)).
Studies of real data on active repair times for many different items have indicated that the log normal
distribution often describes the data well and that the value of Dispersion usually lies between 0.6 and
1.4. The lower value is associated with a modular repair policy (i.e. exchange the module for every
failure) where one would expect the repair times to be close together (i.e. not disperse). The higher
value is associated with item repair at component level (i.e. many different repair actions) where one
would expect the repair times to be widely scattered (i.e. disperse).
If only the Mean Active Repair Time (MART) is known or estimated, the above can be used to estimate
the Median and Dispersion as follows:
Modular level repair: Median = MART x 0.84

Dispersion = 0.6
Component level repair: Median = MART x 0.38

Dispersion = 1.4
112
Empirical Distribution
The empirical distribution facility in RAMP allows the user to define any distribution of times (for failure,
repair or occurrence of CMFs) which cannot be described by the other built-in distributions. It may be
used to represent real data (e.g. from life testing or repair time measurement).
The distribution is defined by the 50 values of time which the user enters. The i'th value represents the
time at which there is a 2i % probability of the event having occurred. For example, if the 14th value
entered is 1500.0, then there is a 28% probability that the failure (or repair as appropriate) will have
occurred by time t = 1500.
Important points to remember about empirical distributions are:

• The values must be increasing and non-negative.
• Do not start the distribution with a value of zero, unless you require a 2% probability of occurrence at
time zero (e.g. a switching failure or instantaneous repair).
• The final value (the 50th) should be a realistic upper limit since the event must occur before this time
with 100% probability.
• Empirical distributions only appear on the list of available distribution types after they have been
defined by the user. The user may then choose to apply a multiplying (scaling) factor for time values
sampled from this distribution. A defined empirical distribution is thus available to the user as a
family of similar distributions.
• Once the user has defined one or more empirical distributions, they may be saved for retrieval into
other models.
113
Appendix
C
APPENDIX C – SOURCES OF FAILURE DATA
This appendix contains a list of generally available sources of failure data which may be useful
to users of RAMP. Obtaining relevant and credible input information is one of the most
difficult parts of a RAMP modelling study. A model which correctly represents a system's
dependencies may give very misleading results if the failure, repair, maintenance and support
information is inappropriate.
Failure data can include the following:

• Failure frequency data (e.g. failure rates, failure characteristic distributions).
• Mean Times Between Failures, probability of failure on demand etc.
• Fault mode descriptions and proportions.
• Failure cause descriptions and proportions.
Note: BS 4778 provides definitions of terms relating to Reliability. In the past, the terms 'fault' and
'failure' have tended to be used as interchangeable equivalents. This practice often still continues,
although 'failure' is strictly an event, whereas 'fault' is a state.
For many items, failure frequency data is quantified as a failure rate against an appropriate usage
measure (e.g. 120 failures per million hours) or as a Mean Usage Between Failures (e.g. 12,000
operating cycles between failures).
Where an item is required to perform correctly on demand (e.g. an emergency power system, a missile,
a shut down system, etc.) then failure frequency is commonly quantified as the probability of failure on
demand. This may be relevant to the switching failure probability for elements in RAMP Standby groups.
Reliability is a stochastic parameter, depending on unpredictably occurring events (failures), and it

cannot be measured directly like weight or speed or other performance parameters. It is therefore often
necessary to research reliability data from existing sources if one wishes to estimate how often a
particular system will fail. However, the observed reliability of an item depends on many factors (e.g.
environment, quality, maintenance history, operating pattern, etc.), so it is vital to select an appropriate
source.
If the modelling exercise is examining the effect of Preventive Maintenance on item failure rates (and
thus system availability), then it is vital that accurate failure distribution information is available. A PM
activity which returns the item failure rate to a 'good-as-new' condition will only be advantageous if the
item was wearing out (e.g. Weibull with shape factor greater than 1.0).
It may be easy to 'prove' that a PM activity is advantageous if the assumed failure distribution data
demonstrates wear-out. Remember that accurate data is vital to support the conclusions of an
Availability Modelling Study. Most available sources of failure data do not include credible failure
distribution data.
Remember that failure rate information from real systems will usually be from a situation where PM has
been carried out, and observed failure frequency data reflect the actual maintenance policy (e.g. many
'avoidable' failure modes have been averted through timely preventive maintenance). Again, most
available sources of failure data do not give information on the PM which was in place.
The following list of available sources gives information such as name, author, relevant industries,
storage medium, etc. No guarantee of the quality or applicability of the data from these sources is given.
114
Name Authority/Contact Industry Storage Medium
SRD Component SRD, AEA Technology Nuclear, chemical, offshore, Stored, retrieved and analysed
Reliability Data Bank 01925 254821 process plants, by AEA technology. No direct
manufacturing access to others
RELDAT AEA Technology Summarised from SRD Windows-based database on
01925 254676 Component Reliability Data IBM PC
Bank to reflect 'average
conditions'
Non-electronic Parts Reliability Analysis Centre, Rome, Defence and other Book (PC-based software of
Reliability Data NY, USA 001-315-337-0900 NPRD-91)
(NPRD-95)
FARADIP.3 (Failure David J Smith Technics General PC-based menu-driven
Rate Data in 01732 352532 (summary data in Smith's book
Perspective) 'Reliability, Maintainability and
Risk')
HARIS (Hazard and RM Consultants Ltd Nuclear, chemical, Held by RMC
Reliability 01235 555755 petrochemical, offshore, oil
Information system) and gas, military, process
plant, manufacturing plant
OREDA-92 OREDA Steering Committee, PO Offshore Oil Industry (North Handbook including data from
(Offshore Reliability Box 370, Hovik, Norway Sea and Adriatic Sea) OREDA-84
Data)
GADS North American Electrical Electricity Generation GAR-five year report
Reliability Council (NERC) Available free of charge
Princeton Forrestal Village,
116-390 Village Boulevard,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540-
5731 USA
Tel 609-452-8060
CCPS Guidelines for American Institute of Chemical Chemical Process, Nuclear, Book – 1990
Process Equipment Engineers Offshore Oil, Fossil Fuel
Reliability 1990 Centre for Chemical Process
Safety
345 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017 USA
DEF STAN 00-41 UK Ministry of Defence Defence MoD Standard Part 3/Issue 1
1983
Plant Integrity Dept ERA Technology Ltd Engineering Consulting High-quality data available for
Cleeve Road specific industrial equipment
Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 7SA
01372 367000
Green and Bourne AE Green and AJ Bourne General Book 1972
'Reliability Wiley Interscience
Technology'
ENI Reliability Data Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi Offshore and Petrochemical Handbook summarising ENI
Bank (Italian Hydrocarbon Process Data Bank 1982
Development)
IAEA – TECDOC International Atomic Energy Nuclear Database on IBM-PC
Database
IEEE 500 The Institution of Electrical and Nuclear power station, Book – 1983
Electronic Engineers Inc. General industrial,
345 East 47th Street Defence
New York, NY 10017 USA
RKS/SKI RKS - Nuclear Safety Board of Nuclear power station Book - 1987 (English)
Swedish Utilities
SKI - Swedish Nuclear Power
Inspectorate
WASH 1400 Nuclear power (compared Microfiche published 1974
with industry, NASA,
USAAF)
Generic Component International Atomic Nuclear Database on PC
Reliability Data Base Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria PC database and book
115
Appendix
D
APPENDIX D – MODELLING LIMITS
As with any software, RAMP imposes certain limits on the items used to build and run a model. The
modelling limits shown below apply to RAMP.
Item Maximum values

Maximum number of elements and groups combined 10000
Maximum number of children per group 1000
Number of groups for Rolling Averages 8
Number of groups for Histograms 10
Number of Element Types 500
Number of Resource/Repair conditions 10
Number of files in the MRU list 9
Number of empirical distributions 30
Number of spares types 500
Number of repair trades 50
Number of common mode failures 10
Length of element and group names 32
116
Appendix
E
APPENDIX E – TROUBLE SHOOTING
On Installation
The installation of RAMP 5.0 requires some additional Microsoft components to allow the reading and
writing of the new MS Access format model files. Accordingly, these components will be installed before
the RAMP program files. A common error occurs when some system files are found to be too old to
work with the new components – RAMP will generate a notification message and ask whether system
files can be updated. It is necessary at this stage to allow RAMP to update the system files and then to
start the installation process again from the beginning.
It is good practice to close down all other applications before a RAMP installation, including any
unnecessary copies of Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, email software, virus checkers and any
other resident software. For a Windows 95 or 98 installation the system will reboot during the
installation. For a Windows NT/2000 installation, after the Sentinel drivers have been installed, you will
have to run Setup02.exe in the C:\RampInst folder. The Setup process leaves some installation files on
your hard disk which will be deleted the first time that RAMP is run.
On Running RAMP
If the program reports a dongle or ‘hardware key’ failure, please ensure that the dongle is firmly plugged
into the parallel port and that the parallel port is working correctly (some BIOS setups allow the parallel
port to be disabled). You should then check that the Sentinel driver has been installed – this should
normally be visible on the Add / Remove Programs form under the Control Panel. If the Sentinel driver
has not been installed please re-run the installation procedure.
Failure to load or save RAMP MDB files indicates that the additional MS Access components have not
been installed correctly – please rerun the installation procedure and allow the RAMP setup process to
update system files as required.
On Using the Builder

RAMP applies validation rules to all model building operations and to all data entry operations on data
forms to ensure that the resulting model is logical and consistent. The Builder provides textual feedback
on all known exception conditions which can occur during these operations. This is presented in the
form of a warning box displayed when the condition is detected and containing text describing the
condition and an appropriate course of action. If you are presented with an error message and the
cause is not obvious, please get in touch with Technical Support.
On Running the Simulation

All known exception conditions which prevent the successful running of a simulation are trapped in the
Builder before the Calculation Engine is started. If, for some reason, the in-line checks are bypassed,
then the Engine itself applies the same checks as the Builder. In the event of a data error being found
by the Engine, a warning box is displayed with the message 'Data errors encountered', and an
explanatory error message is written to the .REC file adjacent to the data item at fault.
117
Appendix
F
APPENDIX F – RESULTS AND OUTPUT FILES
Text Output Files
RAMP generates results as text files, which are processed to provide the results available under the
Results menu. The RECORD and OUTPUT files and the various LOG files may also be viewed directly
using a text file viewer. A description of the various LOG files is given in Chapter 4.
The Record File

The record file contains in text form the input information that RAMP uses to perform the simulation and
includes the following data:
• Mission data
• Rolling average data
• Histogram data
• Criticality groups
• Resources - repair trades and spare parts
• Element data - failure, repair and preventive maintenance data of each element
• Group data - type and contents of each group
• Common Mode Failure information: elements affected and distribution
• User distribution information - the contents of any user-defined empirical failure distributions
To view the Record File, choose Record File from the Results menu. Note that the File Viewer is read-
only.
Record File Example

The following extract from a typical record file provides an example of the format in which this data is
presented.
RECORD FILE FROM RAMP 5.0 ON 15/02/2006 AT 10:26:53

TITLE: USER GUIDE EXAMPLE
========================================================================
MODEL FILE : C:\Ramp\Samples\Uguide.TMP

CREATED ON 15/02/06 AT 10:26:47
========================================================================
MISSION DATA:
========================================================================
RANDOM NO. SEED: 1234.0000
SIMULATION TERMINATION CONDITIONS:-

NUMBER OF MISSIONS: 20
LENGTH OF MISSION: 4368.0
========================================================================
ROLLING AVERAGE DATA:
========================================================================
TIME SPAN: 24.00 TIME INCREMENT: 24.00
GROUPS DEFINED FOR ROLLING AVERAGE:
118
21|1001
28|1008
29|1009 FURNACES
30|1010 OVERALL SYSTEM
========================================================================
HISTOGRAM DATA:
========================================================================
GROUP TYPE MIN MAX

30|1010 OVERALL SYSTEMAVERAGE Q VALUE 0.00000E+00 500.00
27|1007 REACTORS ETC AVERAGE Q VALUE 0.00000E+00 500.00
29|1009 FURNACES DOWN TIME 0.00000E+00 500.00
_
========================================================================
RESOURCE DEFINITION DATA:
========================================================================
RESOURCE NAME: 1 REPAIR TEAMS TYPE: TRADE

NUMBER AVAILABLE: 2
_
========================================================================
ELEMENT DATA:
========================================================================
ELEMENT NAME: 1|20 OS Q VALUE: 150.000

FAILURE DATA:
FAILURE DISTRIBUTION: -VE EXPONENTIAL
MEAN: 800.000
PASSIVE STATE FAILURE RATE FACTOR: 0.00000
PASSIVE TO ACTIVE SWITCHING FAILURE PROBABILITY (%): 0.0
REPAIR DATA:
REPAIR TO 'GOOD-AS-NEW' FLAG IGNORED
REPAIR DISTRIBUTION: -VE EXPONENTIAL
MEAN: 6.000
NO RESOURCE/REPAIR CONDITIONS
REPAIR PRIORITY: 0
LOGISTIC REPAIR DELAY: 0.0 STANDBY STARTUP DELAY: 0.0
MAINTENANCE DATA
NO PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE CYCLES DEFINED
ELEMENT NAME: 2|21 CP Q VALUE: 150.000

FAILURE DATA:
MEAN: 500.000
REPAIR DATA:
MEAN: 24.000
NO RESOURCE/REPAIR CONDITIONS
REPAIR PRIORITY: 0
MAINTENANCE DATA
NO PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE CYCLES DEFINED
ELEMENT NAME: 19|204 BF4 Q VALUE: 50.000

FAILURE DATA:
MEAN: 400.000
REPAIR DATA:
MEAN: 72.000
RESOURCE/REPAIR CONDITIONS:
TRADE: 1 REPAIR TEAMS x 1.
REPAIR PRIORITY: 0
119
MAINTENANCE DATA
INTELLIGENT PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE FLAG IS UNSET
P.M.CYCLE UP-TIME DOWN-TIME START-TIME GOOD-AS-NEW?
1 72.000 24.000 0.00000E+00 Y
WARNING - P.M. ASSOCIATED WITH EXPONENTIAL FAILURE DISTRIBUTION
_
========================================================================
GROUP DATA:
========================================================================
GROUP NAME: 20|1000 CENTRAL CONTROL TYPE: STANDBY REDUNDANT

RATING = 150.000 CUTOFF = 0.000
GROUP CONTENTS: -
2|21 CP
3|22 CS
GROUP NAME: 21|1001 TYPE: MINIMUM

GROUP CONTENTS: -
4|111 RG1
5|112 R1
GROUP NAME: 27|1007 REACTORS ETC TYPE: ACTIVE REDUNDANT

RATING = 150.000 CUTOFF = 0.000
GROUP CONTENTS: -
21|1001
22|1002
23|1003
24|1004
25|1005
26|1006
USER DISTRIBUTION DATA:

========================================================================
DISTRIBUTION NAME:USER1
5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 50.0 60.0
70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0 200.0 300.0 400.0 500.0 600.0 650.0
700.0 750.0 800.0 850.0 900.0 950.0 970.0 990.0 1000.0 1010.0
1030.0 1050.0 1100.0 1150.0 1200.0 1300.0 1400.0 1600.0 1800.0 2000.0
3000.0 4000.0 5000.0 6000.0 7000.0 7500.0 8000.0 8500.0 9000.0 9500.0
The record file is formatted as plain text and can therefore be opened in a suitable text editor or word
processor, such as the applications Notepad or Wordpad supplied with Microsoft Windows.
120
The Output File
The output file contains in tabular form the analysis results from the simulation performed by RAMP
listed in the following order:
• Group performance data - in terms of the means and standard deviations of q values achieved
during the mission.
• Element performance data - values for means and standard deviations of element state data
(average time per mission spent in each state, average number of switches into each state) for each
element, the means and standard deviations of q values achieved during the mission.
• Resource utilisation data - maximum and minimum levels of availability of repair teams and of spare
parts.
To view the Output File, choose Output File from the Results menu. Note that the File Viewer is read-
only.
Output File Example

The following extract from a typical output file provides an example of the format in which this data is
presented. An explanation of the abbreviations used in presentation of the data can be found in the file
headers.
RESULTS FILE FROM RAMP 5.0

TITLE: USER GUIDE EXAMPLE
* STRUCT CRC: 1258178041
========================================================================
MODEL FILE : C:\Ramp\Samples\Uguide.TMP

CREATED ON 15/02/06 AT 10:26:53
========================================================================
RANDOM NO. SEED: 1234.0000
SIMULATION TERMINATION CONDITIONS:-

NUMBER OF MISSIONS: 20
LENGTH OF MISSION: 4368.0
STARTED : 15/02/06 AT 10:26:53
STOPPED : 15/02/06 AT 10:26:58
DURATION : 0: 0: 5
========================================================================
GROUP RESULTS FOLLOW, INDICATING FOR EACH GROUP:
* AVERAGE q VALUE OVER ALL MISSIONS (QAV)

* AVERAGE TIME PER MISSION FOR WHICH q=0 (TQZ)
* AVERAGE NUMBER OF TIMES PER MISSION (NTZ) THE GROUP WAS
SWITCHED TO q=0 (INCLUDES INITIAL SWITCHING TO q=0)
* STANDARD DEVIATION OF q VALUE (SDQ)
* STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE AVERAGE q VALUE PER MISSION (SDQAV)
(SDQ AND SDQAV ARE EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTAGE OF QAV, THE
AVERAGE q VALUE. SDQAV IS MEANINGLESS IF ONLY A SINGLE
MISSION HAS BEEN SIMULATED).
FOR BUFFER GROUPS ONLY, THE FOLLOWING RESULTS:
* AVERAGE NUMBER OF TIMES PER MISSION THE BUFFER WAS EMPTY (NBE)
* AVERAGE NUMBER OF TIMES PER MISSION THE BUFFER WAS FULL (NBF)
* AVERAGE TIME PER MISSION BUFFER WAS EMPTY (TBE)
* AVERAGE TIME PER MISSION BUFFER WAS FULL (TBF)
* MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM BUFFER LEVELS (BLO AND BHI)
121
GROUP NAME: 20|1000 CENTRAL CONTROL TYPE: STANDBY REDUNDANT
QAV: 147.75 TQZ: 65.392 NTZ: 2.9500
SDQ: 13.485% SDQAV: 0.748%

QAV: 25.686 TQZ: 628.18 NTZ: 48.150
SDQ: 46.760% SDQAV: 2.391%

QAV: 25.702 TQZ: 625.75 NTZ: 47.250
SDQ: 46.528% SDQAV: 2.320%
========================================================================
ELEMENT RESULTS FOLLOW, INDICATING FOR EACH ELEMENT:
* AVERAGE TIME PER MISSION (TPM) SPENT IN EACH STATE

* AVERAGE NUMBER OF TIMES PER MISSION (NTM) SWITCHED INTO
EACH STATE (INCLUDING SWITCHING INTO INITIAL STATE)
* AVERAGE q VALUE OVER ALL MISSIONS (QAV)
* AVERAGE q DIVIDED BY SPECIFIED Q (q/Q)
* STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE AVERAGE q VALUE PER MISSION (SDQAV)
EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTAGE OF QAV, THE AVERAGE q VALUE
NOTE THAT THE STANDARD DEVIATION FIGURE (SDQAV) IS MEANINGLESS
IF ONLY A SINGLE MISSION HAS BEEN SIMULATED).
STATES ARE IDENTIFIED AS FOLLOWS:

STATE 1: BEING PREVENTATIVELY MAINTAINED (q=0)
STATE 2: BEING REPAIRED (OR QUEUING) FOLLOWING RANDOM FAILURE (q=0)
STATE 3: UNDETECTED (DORMANT) FAILURE (q=0)
STATE 4: "UP", BUT IN A PASSIVE STATE (q=0)
STATE 5: "UP", AND IN THE ACTIVE STATE (q=Q)
ELEMENT NAME: 1|20 OS SPECIFIED Q VALUE: 150.00

QAV: 148.73 q/Q: 99.15% SDQAV: 0.511%
STATE 1 STATE 2 STATE 3 STATE 4 STATE 5 QUEUING
TPM:0.00000E+00 37.019 0.00000E+00 0.00000E+00 4331.0 0.00000E+00
NTM:0.00000E+00 5.7000 0.00000E+00 0.00000E+00 6.7000 0.00000E+00
ELEMENT NAME: 2|21 CP SPECIFIED Q VALUE: 150.00

QAV: 138.52 q/Q: 92.35% SDQAV: 3.465%
TPM:0.00000E+00 334.18 0.00000E+00 0.00000E+00 4033.8 0.00000E+00
NTM:0.00000E+00 9.3000 0.00000E+00 0.00000E+00 10.300 0.00000E+00
ELEMENT NAME: 3|22 CS SPECIFIED Q VALUE: 150.00

QAV: 9.2304 q/Q: 6.15% SDQAV: 46.627%
TPM:0.00000E+00 95.286 981.22 3022.7 268.79 0.00000E+00
NTM:0.00000E+00 2.9000 2.2500 10.250 8.6000 0.00000E+00
RESOURCE RESULTS FOLLOW:
RESOURCE NAME: 1 REPAIR TEAMS

MAX AND MIN LEVELS: 2 0 AVERAGE LEVEL: 1.5528
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RAMP 5.

Reliability, Availability and Maintainability of

Microsoft Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other product

Farnham, July 2007

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Distribution Type Defining Parameters Uses

State Description ‘q’ Value

Group Type Series/ ‘q’ Value Combination Rule Example Uses

INTRODUCTION TO RAMP FOR WINDOWS

Why use Monte Carlo Simulation?

Input to RAMP - The Model

Results Produced by RAMP

Conventions and Notations used in the Manual

Third Level is Dark Blue

GETTING STARTED WITH RAMP

Checking your RAMP Package

Hardware and Software Requirements

Component Recommended Minimum

Licence Protection Device (dongle)

• Insert the RAMP CD in your CD drive.

If necessary, specify the directory where RAMP should be installed.

RAMP Customer Support Help Desk

Element States and Events

The possible states for an element are as follows:

Figure 1.1 : Element Details form, Reliability Parameters tab

Figure 1.2 : Element Details form, Repair Policy tab

Figure 1.3 : Element Details form, Planned Maintenance tab

Figure 1.4 : Mission Data form, General tab

Other Model Data

Creating a Simple Model

Thus the system as a whole is made up of the following components:

Figure 2.1 : Fuel Mill Block Diagram

To construct the redundant group representing the Mill House doors:

Name Q Failure Failure Repair Repair Repair

Figure 2.3 : Mission Data form, General tab

Defining Repair Resources

Figure 2.4 : Spares form

• For Name enter 'Spare Fuel Feeder'.

Figure 2.5 : Element Details form, Repair Policy tab

Printing and Saving the Model Diagram

Detailed Element Parameters

More information about Element Types is given in Chapter 5.

General Data on the Reliability Parameters tab:

Element Details Form - Repair Policy Tab

Figure 2.7 : Element Details form, Repair Policy tab

Standby Elements Data on the Repair Policy tab:

Resource/Repair Conditions on the Repair Policy tab:

Figure 2.8 : Element Details form, Planned Maintenance tab

Parameter Name Data Type Description

Figure 2.9 : Group Details form

Defining Group Parameters

Assigning the Group Name

Defining the Group Type

Model Editing Facilities in the Group Details Form

Increasing the Number of Elements in a Group

Reducing the Number of Items in a Group

Further Editing Facilities

Element Table View

Element Parameter Factors

Figure 2.10 : Element Type list

The Mission Data Form – General Information Tab

Figure 3.1 : Mission Data form, General tab

Random Number Seed

Intelligent Preventive Maintenance