Track and signalling

SAbRE migrates to the web

Transsol has developed a fault recording and corrective action system called FRACAS. This enables in-service reliability and availability performance of monitored systems and equipment to be accurately and consistently determined as part of a reliability demonstration test programme (RDTP).

Key elements of the system include the ability to record all the relevant information from systems under test in a consistent manner, to allow intuitive, coherent, analysis of the data and to provide clear presentation of the results. The unique features of the FRACAS developed by Transsol enable entirely consistent fault data to be recorded thus bringing real value to the end results. This is achieved by removing the need for personnel involved in the fault recording process to make subjective judgments about what has occurred, thereby eliminating any uncertainties in the information collated.

All the relevant information about a system or item of equipment under test is precisely defined and documented in a series of RDTP test plans. These documents allow for validation of the base data in advance of the testing programme. This, in turn, allows all stakeholders involved in the RDTP to accept the end results which de-risks the subsequent reliability testing exercise.

The information contained in the RDTP test plans is uniquely coded for use within the FRACAS and hence the overall FRACAS is based entirely on pre-defined, coded base information. Together with a relational database designed specifically to mirror the format of the initial fault recording to store and automatically analyse the data, this provides a rigorous and consistent means of measuring in-service reliability performance.

At the heart of the system is Transsol’s SAbRE database, a management system intended to facilitate reliability demonstration testing (RDT). It is used to store and analyse the test data, calculate system performance and present test results as part of the FRACAS which also includes capture of test data and guidelines for its use.

Initially developed as a standalone run-time application for use on clients’ IT infrastructure, the SAbRE application has now been migrated to the web offering a managed service accessible to clients via a secure internet connection.

The database enables a wide range of incoming incident reports to be collected, quantified and controlled. Data such as test and field and repair and maintenance is entered onto the database in pre-coded form. Data is that which is obtained from the RDTP test plans in its coded form. This information is available in code catalogues used by the personnel involved in the data collation process. This uniquely identifies specific items of equipment, locations and failure modes.

In addition to reliability demonstration, the SAbRE database enables failure modes to be identified and trends analysed. It also provides the information required to optimise maintenance tasks thereby reducing the cost of ownership of equipment. The product is easily tailored to specific equipment, systems and applications. The key functionality of the database includes:

- secure, reliable and auditable record of the testing
- real time analysis of the test data.
- automatic calculation of system reliability and availability
- real time monitoring of system RAM performance
- monitoring of maintenance performance
- automatic generation of test reports
- automatic generation of code catalogues

This system has been successfully deployed on the Athens metro lines 2 and 3 extension project to measure in-service reliability and availability performance of complex distributed electrical and mechanical plant against contractual numeric targets.

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