Proposta de integração da metodologia FMEA na gestão de segurança de barragem hidréletrica

Abstract

The dam failure scenario in Brazil has been more frequent than expected around the world and, therefore, dam safety management has become a central focus of entrepreneurs who have sought to meet legal requirements and supervisory bodies. In this context, risk analysis methodologies applied in several sectors of the industry, started to be considered in the management of dam projects, adding benefits in the activities of control and monitoring of the structures, as well as in the prediction of failure modes and accidents. Therefore, the present research has as a general objective, to propose the integration of the risk analysis methodology, FMEA methodology (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) to the safety management system practiced at UHE Tucuruí, seeking to expand the entrepreneur's management to the scope of the failure mode scenarios and their respective causes, including the monitoring of indicators related to the dam's safety status, occurrence and detection rates. The research methodology was based on five steps, namely: a) characterization of the dam, a case study; b) identification of anomalies present in the structure's history; ç); analysis of the entrepreneur's management process; d) application of the FMEA methodology resulting in scenarios with higher NPR and; e) proposal to integrate the FMEA into the safety management system practiced by the entrepreneur. The results of the FMEA application indicated that among the failure modes simulated for the dam case study, the scenario “internal erosion caused by clogging of filters and drains in the earthen dam on the right bank” presented the highest NPR, and therefore, this is the scenario that requires prioritization of actions. Also, for most of the simulated failure modes, the detection rate resulted in a 'low detection', due to weaknesses in the dam monitoring system, as recorded in the dam instrumentation reports. In the case of the UHE Tucuruí safety management process, it was possible to integrate the FMEA methodology into the plant's flowchart, taking advantage of the "Periodic Review" stage, using the same team hired for this demand, optimizing the flowchart. Finally, it is expected that the integration of the FMEA methodology in the dam management process will provide the following benefits: a) dam safety management oriented towards the management of failure mode scenarios; b) management of risk control mechanisms and continuous assessment of the project's monitoring system.