Scientia Iranica

Scientia Iranica

Solving the redundancy allocation problem of k-out-of-n with non-exponential repairable components using optimization via simulation approach

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
P. Azimi
M. Hemmati
A. Chambari
Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
10.24200/sci.2017.4134
Abstract
In this article, a new model and a novel solving method are provided to address the non-exponential redundancy allocation problem in series-parallel k-out-of-n systems with repairable components based on Optimization Via Simulation (OVS) technique. Despite the previous studies, in this model, the failure and repair times of each component were considered to have non-negative exponential distributions. This assumption makes the model closer to the reality where the majority of used components have greater chance to face a breakdown in comparison to new ones. The main objective of this research is the optimization of Mean Time to the First Failure (MTTFF) of the system via allocating the best redundant components to each subsystem. Since this objective function of the problem could not be explicitly mentioned, the simulation technique was applied to model the problem, and di erent experimental designs were produced using DOE methods. To solve the problem, some meta-Heuristic Algorithms were integrated with the simulation method. Several experiments were carried out to test the proposed approach; as a result, the proposed approach is much more real than previous models, and the near optimum solutions are also promising.
Keywords
Redundancy allocation problem
k-out-of-n systems
meta-heuristic algorithms
Simulation Methods
Enterprise Dynamic (ED) software
Subjects
Scientia Iranica
Volume 24, Issue 3
Transactions on Industrial Engineering (E)
May and June 2017
Pages 1547-1560

  • Receive Date 26 May 2015
  • Revise Date 30 September 2015
  • Accept Date 05 September 2016