Maintenance budget estimation for a particle accelerator system under its contextual conditions: a case study

Precise estimation of annual maintenance budget (AMB) drives appropriate maintenance actions. There appears to be a dearth of historical data to evaluate the AMB for a particle accelerator system as these are not many. This paper presents a case study on estimating the AMB of such a system for its contextual conditions using relational matrix of the budget variables. The diagonal elements of the matrix represent the variables while the off-diagonal elements signify the degree of influence among these. The maintenance budget function is evaluated from this matrix and is used to evaluate the AMB for the Pelletron system as a percentage of its asset replacement value. The actual maintenance expenditure on the Pelletron system was found to be within 2.07% of the estimated AMB. The approach is expected to aid the maintenance managers of similar systems, which operate under contextual conditions unique to their laboratory.