Dynamic condition-based maintenance policy for degrading systems described by a random-coefficient autoregressive model: A comparative study

Abstract

In this paper, we optimize a dynamic condition-based maintenance policy for a slowly degrading system subject to soft failure and condition monitoring at equidistant, discrete time epochs. A random-coefficient autoregressive model with time effect is developed to describe the system degradation. The system age, previous state observations, and the item-to-item variability of the degradation are jointly combined in the proposed degradation model. Stochastic behavior for both the age-dependent and the statedependent term are considered, and a Bayesian approach for periodically updating the estimates of the stochastic coefficients is developed to combine information from a degradation database with real-time condition-monitoring information. Based on this degradation model, the dynamic maintenance policy is formulated and solved in a semi-Markov decision process framework. Incorporated with the same semi-Markov decision process framework is a novel approach for mean residual life estimation, which enables simultaneous residual life estimation with the optimization procedure. The effectiveness of using the proposed randomcoefficient autoregressive model with time effect rather than the existing fixed-coefficient ones to describe system degradation is demonstrated through a comparative study based on a real degradation dataset. The advantages of using a dynamic maintenance policy are also revealed.