A method for parallel relative system maintenance decision-making based on product health

In most maintenance decision-making for parallel systems, the systems are considered that there is no functional relation among the component units. In other words, the failure of any unit does not influence the function of rest units. However, a lot of systems, whose function of units are relative, are applied in engineering practice. These systems are named parallel relative systems. If a unit of the system fails, the load of the unit will distribute to the other units which work normally. However, the accessorial load will make the normal units’ health deteriorate more quickly. Nowadays, the study of maintenance decision-making for parallel relative systems is little.This paper, catering to parallel relative system’s maintenance expense ratio, presents a maintenance decision-making model. Through analyzing the influence factors and the objective of maintenance decision-making; Meanwhile, taking the unit health degree as the constraint and the minimum maintenance expense ratio as the target. Then, A maintenance decision-making model is proposed to determine the maintenance time of parallel relative systems, which could make the least maintenance cost. At last, a study case demonstrates the effectiveness of the model.