Optimal Periodic Inspection for Multi-Auxiliary Component Systems Subject to Load-Sharing Dependence

Abstract

The development of science and technology makes the system become more and more complex, systems with protective auxiliary component are common in engineering industry. When the auxiliary components fail, it will not only weaken the ability to protect the main parts, but also affect the state of the remaining operational auxiliary components. However, the structure and dependence between the auxiliary components are often overlooked, which is very important in real operation. In this paper, we studied a system consisting of a main component and a protective auxiliary subsystem, the latter is a load-sharing k-out-of-n system. Since the dependence between main and auxiliary components, as well as between auxiliary components, so it is important to find the failure state of the auxiliary components in time and take the corresponding maintenance strategy. The opportunistic inspection and periodic inspection are proposed in this model. A semi-regenerative process is used to calculate the long-run average cost, based on which the optimal inspection period of the auxiliary subsystem is derived by an enumeration method.