Reliability modelling and maintenance policy optimization for a
repairable parallel system
- Reza Ahmadi ,
- Shaomin Wu ,
- Amirhossein Sobhani
Abstract
This paper proposes an integrated approach for reliability modelling and
maintenance scheduling of repairable parallel systems subject to hidden
failures. The system consists of heterogeneous redundant subsystems
whose failures are revealed only by inspections. Inspections at periodic
times reveal the components state and repair actions are decided by the
excursion of a basic state process describing the total number of failed
components in each subsystem. Using the standard renewal arguments, the
paper aims at minimizing the average cost rate by the joint
determination of the optimal inspection interval, the partial repair
threshold and the preventive replacement threshold. We illustrate the
procedure for the case as the components' lifetimes conform to the
Weibull distribution. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the
proposed model and the response of the optimal solutions to the model's
parameters.