Sizing intermediate storage with stochastic equipment failures under general operation conditions

An algorithm and simulation program have been developed for sizing intermediate storages of batch/semicontinuous systems taking into account stochastic equipment failures under general operation conditions. The method is based on the observation that any process of this system can be built up from a random sequence of failure cycles of finite number. By means of simulation and statistical evaluation of the results of the simulation runs the storage is sized at a given significance level. The computation time is favourable, and it appears to be a linear function of the number of the failure cycles.