Maintenance Policy with Lifetime Reduction Based on Uncertain Renewal Process

Abstract

This paper focus on a (N, T) preventive maintenance (PM) policy with lifetime reduction discount rate. In our consideration, the lifetime of component is assumed to be an uncertain variable due to the absence of historical operational data, an uncertain (N, T) PM model with the lifetime reduction in a certain proportion is proposed based on uncertain renewal process. Accordingly, the uncertain model, which minimizes the expected maintenance cost rate, is formulated to find the optimal replacement cycle length T∗ and the number N∗ of preventive maintenance. Finally, a numerical example with sensitivity analysis of parameters is provided to illustrate the proposed model, the results imply that the parameters of cost and lifetime can significantly affect the optimal solutions N∗ and T∗, which can provide a useful reference and guidance for aircraft maintenance decision.