Optimal dynamic imperfect preventive maintenance of wind turbines based on general renewal processes

Abstract

With the rapid growth in wind turbine technology worldwide, the high operational and maintenance costs of wind turbines have posed a major challenge to wind power operating companies. Considering the high replacement cost, imperfect maintenance measures are employed widely once downtime failures occur. However, as the metric to describe the effect of imperfect maintenance is a non-intuitive variable, the evaluation results obtained from existing research do not conform with actual wind turbine situations. To address this issue, the virtual age factor and failure intensity update factor are expressed by intuitive variables to illustrate the imperfect maintenance effect. Additionally, we propose a failure rate function update model considering the above factors. To minimise maintenance costs while ensuring the availability of the wind turbine, we investigate a periodic dynamic imperfect preventive maintenance decision model based on the proposed failure rate function update model. We also provide a brief illustration of the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed model through optimal solution and sensitivity analyses. The results obtained from the case analysis and strategies comparison, based on actual wind turbine maintenance data, demonstrate the economic advantages of our approach.