An Imperfect Grouping Maintenance Strategy for Multi-Component Systems Using the Survival Signature

Abstract

This paper presents an imperfect maintenance strategy for the multi-component systems. The proposed maintenance strategy takes into account two types of maintenance actions, namely preventive maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM). The imperfect effect of PM is modeled on the basis of the hybrid hazard rate model. Meanwhile, a new structure importance measure based on the survival signature is presented. Using this new importance measure method, an adjustment function is designed to update the PM maintenance threshold. For CM actions, a decision rule relying on the criticality level of components is introduced. In order to judge the criticality level of components, a novel structure updating method based on the survival signature is proposed. Moreover, a maintenance model considering economic dependence among components is developed. A 10-component system is finally introduced to illustrate the use and advantages of the proposed maintenance strategy.