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Description
The 91 km circumference of the Future Circular Collider (FCCee), combined with radiation constraints, makes human-centric repairs operationally limiting. Long intervention times risk becoming a major bottleneck to scientific output, motivating a shift toward optimized automated repair and maintainability as a first-order design constraint.
This work presents a Maintainability by Design methodology using the RAMILab reliability modelling environment and AvailSim4 Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate intervention concepts during the FCC design phase. Sensitivity and cost-benefit analyses identify intervention classes where the machine’s scale makes automation a strategic necessity.
Case studies on smoke alarm validation and automated power-converter replacement demonstrate the potential for automated recovery to increase system-level availability by approximately 90%. Combined with robot reliability, sensitivity analyses, and cost estimates, these simulations enable comprehensive assessment of intervention strategies and guide informed design decisions.
By extrapolating historical operational experience into prospective design knowledge, this methodology enables intervention concepts to be assessed alongside technical system requirements. In doing so, it positions maintainability alongside technical performance as a key criterion for subsystem design, supporting long-term accelerator availability and scientific output.