Multi-objective optimization of a sequentially inspected system prone to revealing and non-revealing failures via particle swarm optimization and a fuzzy method

ABSTRACT

Maintenance models rely heavily on the failure characteristics and inspection or maintenance actions. This paper introduced a sequentially inspected system whose failure alternated between revealing and non-revealing failures. The distinctive characteristic of the proposed model is that inspections are imperfect, inspection and maintenance time are non-negligible, and corrective maintenance is perfect. The proposed study contributed on the multi-objective availability and cost optimization issue of the aforementioned system, which was lacking in the prior studies. This paper focused on evaluating the general expressions for limiting availability and long-run average cost of the sequentially inspected system and addressed the multi-objective optimization issue using particle swarm optimization to generate the Pareto optimal solutions followed by a fuzzy method to select the best compromise solution. Moreover, reasonable results were achieved using a numerical case study and the findings of the existing studies were found to be the special case of this model.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Multi-objective optimization (MOO)
• sequential inspection
• availability
• particle swarm optimization (PSO)
• fuzzy method

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Himani Pant

Himani Pant is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at DIT University, Dehradun, India. She has completed her B.Sc.(H) Mathematics and M.Sc. (Mathematics) from Delhi University, India in the year 2015 and 2017 respectively. She completed her Ph.D. from G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India in the year 2022. She has cleared Joint CSIR-UGC National eligibility test (NET) for JRF held on June 2018 and was being awarded the fellowship for the same by CSIR, India. Her area of research is Reliability Theory.

S. B. Singh

S. B. Singh is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. He has around 25 years of teaching and research experience. Prof. Singh is a member of Indian Mathematical Society, Operations Research Society of India, ISST and National Society for Prevention of Blindness in India and Indian Science Congress Association. He is editor of the Journal of Reliability and Statistical Studies. He has authored and co-authored eight books on different courses of Applied/Engineering Mathematics. He has been conferred with four national awards. His area of interest is Reliability Theory.