Systematically Reconstructed Systems

Abstract

In Chaps. 4–7, we addressed the problem of modeling systems that degrade over time and that are abandoned after failure. However, frequently, once systems reach a serviceability threshold, or experience failure, they are updated or reconstructed so as to be put back in service. In these cases, some additional considerations are needed to describe the system’s performance over time. Since models for systematically reconstructed systems are based on renewal theory (under specific assumptions; see Chap. 3), one of the modeling challenges in this chapter is the study and evaluation of the distribution function for the times between renewals. We also integrate the degradation models presented in Chaps. 4 and 7 with renewal theory to build models able to describe the long-term performance of large engineering systems. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part presents models that do not explicitly take deterioration into account, while the second part considers explicit characterizations of deterioration over time. The models presented in this chapter will be used later to carry out life-cycle analysis (Chap. 9) and to define maintenance policies (Chap. 10).