Intelligent optimization algorithm for maintenance scheme based on life cycle cost

Abstract

In engineering practice, to make sure that a project can achieve safe operation while minimizing the overall cost during the whole life cycle, the supervisor of the project generally needs to make optimal decisions for the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of the project. To this end, this paper adopted Genetic Algorithms (GA) and LCC theory to propose and implement a kind of optimization algorithms suitable for solving maintenance scheme problems. Combining with the selection of three actual maintenance scenarios of “take no maintenance measure/preventive maintenance measures only”, “take major maintenance measures”, and “take major maintenance measures and preventive maintenance measures”, the proposed algorithm adopted real number coding to give optimization solutions from two perspectives of “control service life and calculate cost” and “control cost and calculate service life”; moreover, the paper conducted a comparative analysis on the maintenance schemes of reinforced concrete bridge decks using Matlab and verified the reliability and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.