Reliability Analysis and Maintenance of Multi-state Repairable Systems

Description

This research aims to investigate several important problems associated with thereliability analysis and maintenance modeling of multi-state repairable systems.Research on multi-state systems (MSSs) is becoming increasingly important becausetraditional binary-state system models are simplistic and cannot address thedegradation and maintenance issues of complex systems. This research aims to studysome of these pressing issues.First, we will examine common dynamic systems to explore their full potential. We willmathematically formulate the dynamic process of MSSs in operation for reliabilityevaluation. Markov and semi-Markov processes will be utilized to develop dynamicmulti-state reliability analysis models. One important problem in this aspect is toconstruct reliability models based on statistical uncertainty, component reliability, andsystem structure.Second, we will employ uncertainty importance measures through reliability modeling ofdynamic MSSs to determine the components that are most likely to cause uncertainty inthe system’s unreliability and will reduce this uncertainty by improving the unreliabilityestimation of these components. In the reliability analysis, uncertainty importancemeasures will be utilized to quantify the contribution of a component to systemperformance at a nominal point. Uncertainty (global) sensitivity measures are related tooutput uncertainty, whereas probabilistic (local) importance measures are related to theoutput itself. Uncertainty importance measures quantify the contribution of theuncertainty of component reliability to the uncertainty of system performance.Finally, according to the most important component, we will investigate several practicaldecision-making issues related to the maintenance of multi-state repairable systems(e.g., selective maintenance of MSS under imperfect maintenance). We will then studythe issue of preventive selective maintenance scheduling over a finite planning horizonto reduce the maintenance cost and improve system reliability.Overall, the proposed MSS reliability models will involve the reliability evaluation andmodeling of dynamic MSS, uncertainty importance measures of components in dynamicMSS, and maintenance strategies for dynamic MSS. A world-class manufacturingcompany will support the project by providing all the necessary data for the simulation,testing, and implementation of the newly developed methods to determine the industrialimplications of the project. A reliability software company will also provide life data forverification from its wide client base, including oil and gas, mining, and chemical processindustries.