Maintenance Optimization of Continuous State Systems Based on Performance Improvement

The continuous state system is a special kind of a system in which the states of the system and its components have continuous values, ranging from perfect functioning to complete failure. This paper introduces the performance improvement for a continuous state system, which can be used to measure the improvement of systems performance comparing pre- and postmaintenance time. The probabilistic characteristics of performance improvement are discussed in detail. Then, the performance improvement for multicomponent maintenance and corresponding calculation method are also put forward to establish the objective function for maintenance optimization. Third, a maintenance optimization model for such a system is studied, and corresponding performance improvement based genetic algorithm is provided to search a near global optimal solution. Finally, two numerical examples and an oil transportation system application case study are implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.