Optimal load distribution for multi-state systems under selective maintenance strategy

Many engineering systems are exposed to run in load-varying environment. Load has a significant impact on the deteriorating process of components and system. Distributing the loads optimally among components of a system can reduce the failure probability and prolong the system life. In this paper, an approach to load distribution for multi-state systems under selective maintenance strategy is developed. In addition to optimally allocating the limited maintenance budget among components, the proposed method also provides a feasible way to distribute loads imposed on components so as to maximize the probability of system successfully completing the next mission. The resulting optimization problem is solved by the genetic algorithm (GA). As observed from our comparative study, the proposed method always yields a better result that the existing method which doesn't take load distribution into account.