Abstract

To increase the reliability of a specific system, using redundant components is a common method which is called redundancy allocation problem (RAP). Some of the RAP studies have focused on k-out-of-n systems. However, all of these studies assumed predetermined active or standby strategies for each subsystem. In this paper, for the first time, we propose a k-out-of-n system with a choice of redundancy strategies. Therefore, a k-out-of-n series–parallel system is considered when the redundancy strategy can be chosen for each subsystem. In other words, in the proposed model, the redundancy strategy is considered as an additional decision variable and an exact method based on integer programming is used to obtain the optimal solution of the problem. As the optimization of RAP belongs to the NP-hard class of problems, a modified version of genetic algorithm (GA) is also developed. The exact method and the proposed GA are implemented on a well-known test problem and the results demonstrate the efficiency of the new approach compared with the previous studies.

Highlights

  • Reliability optimization is one of the most important goals in high-tech industries

  • In the proposed model, the redundancy strategy is considered as an additional decision variable and an exact method based on integer programming is used to obtain the optimal solution of the problem

  • Using this solution method for a large-scale problem will increase the number of variables to a too large set, so that the exact method would not be useful in this situation and it is hard to obtain optimal solution

Read more

Summary

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Redundancy allocation problem for k-out-of-n systems with a choice of redundancy strategies. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Introduction
Problem description
Choice of redundancy strategies
Exact solution methodology
Àkij ki tÁl!
Genetic algorithm implementation
Solution encoding
Initial population
Stopping criteria
Fitness function
Illustrative example
Exact solution
Active strategy zi ni
Genetic algorithm
Conclusion
Proposed GA
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call