• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.125-139
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• 2004

Generally, parallel redundancy is used to improve reliability in many systems. However, redundancy increases system cost, weight, volume, power, etc. Due to limited availability of these resources, the system designer has to maximize reliability subject to various constraints or minimize resources while satisfying the minimum requirement of system reliability. This paper presents GAs (Genetic Algorithms) to solve redundancy allocation in series-parallel systems. To apply the GAs to this problem, we propose a genetic representation, the method for initial population construction, evaluation and genetic operators. Especially, to improve the performance of GAs, we develop heuristic operators (heuristic crossover, heuristic mutation) using the reliability-resource information of the chromosome. Experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The performance comparison between the proposed algorithm and a pervious method shows that our approach is more efficient.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.701-711
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• 2019

Purpose: The problem of optimizing redundancy allocation in multi-level systems is considered when each item in a multi-level system has alternative items with the same function. The number of redundancy of multi-level system is allocated to maximize the reliability of the system under path set and cost limitation constraints. Methods: Based on cost limitation and path set constraints, a mathematical model is established to maximize system reliability. Particle swarm optimization is employed for redundant allocation and verified by numerical experiments. Results: Comparing the particle swarm optimization method and the memetic algorithm for the 3 and 4 level systems, the particle swarm optimization method showed better performance for solution quality and search time. Particularly, the particle swarm optimization showed much less than the memetic algorithm for variation of results. Conclusion: The proposed particle swarm optimization considerably shortens the time to search for a feasible solution in MRAP with path set constraints. PS optimization is expected to reduce search time and propose the better solution for various problems related to MRAP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Reliability Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.399-404
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• 2000

Redundancy allocation problems have been considered at single-level systems and it may be the best policy in some specific situations, but not in general. With regards to reliability, it is most effective to allocate the lowest objects, because parallel-series systems are more reliable than series-parallel systems. However, the smaller and tower in the system an object is, the more time and accuracy are needed for duplicating it, and so, the cost can be decreased by using modular redundancy. Therefore, providing redundancy at high levels like as modules or subsystems, can be more economical than providing redundancy at low levels or duplicating components. In this paper, the problem in which redundancy is allocated at all level in a series system is addressed, a mixed integer nonlinear programming model is presented and genetic algorithm is proposed. An example illustrates the procedure.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.94-101
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• 2005

This paper presents the first known application of a meta-heuristic algorithm, variable neighbourhood descent (VND), to the redundancy allocation problem (RAP). The RAP, a well-known NP-hard problem, has been the subject of much prior work, generally in a restricted form where each subsystem must consist of identical components. The newer meta-heuristic methods overcome this limitation and offer a practical way to solve large instances of the relaxed RAP where different components can be used in parallel. The variable neighbourhood descent method has not yet been used in reliability design, yet it is a method that fits perfectly in those combinatorial problems with potential neighbourhood structures, as in the case of the RAP. A variable neighbourhood descent algorithm for the RAP is developed and tested on a set of well-known benchmark problems from the literature. Results on 33 test problems ranging from less to severely constrained conditions show that the variable neighbourhood descent method provides comparable solution quality at a very moderate computational cost in comparison with the best-known heuristics. Results also indicate that the VND method performs with little variability over random number seeds.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.130-145
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• 1998

This paper is concerned with the optimization of a system reliability. Two kinds of the reliability model for optimal allocation of parallel redundancy are considered. The algorithm for solving the optimal redundancy problem is proposed by the use of dynamic programming(DP) method. The problem is approached with a standard DP formulation and the DP algorithm is applied to the model and then the optimal solution is found by the backtracking method. The method is applicable to the models having no constraints or having a cost constraint subject to a specified minimum requirement of the system reliability. A consequence of this study is that the developed computer program package are implemental for the optimization of the system reliability.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.332-342
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• 2017

Purpose: In this study, the lifetime distribution of a k-out-of-n system with heterogeneous components is suggested as Markov model, and the time-to-failure (TTF) distribution of each component is considered as phase-type distribution (PHD). Furthermore, based on the model, a redundancy allocation problem with a mix of components (RAPMC) is proposed. Methods: The lifetime distribution model for the system is formulated by the structured Markov chain. From the model, the various information on the system lifetime can be ascertained by the matrix-analytic (or-geometric) method. Conclusion: By the generalization of TTF distribution (PHD) and the consideration of heterogeneous components, the lifetime distribution model can delineate many real systems and be exploited for developing system operation policies such as preventive maintenance, warranty. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed RAPMC is verified by numerical experiments. That is, under the equivalent design conditions, it presented a system with higher reliability than RAP without component mixing (RAPCM).

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1082-1089
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• 2011

Most engineered systems are designed with high levels of system redundancies to satisfy required reliability requirements under adverse events, resulting in high systems' LCCs (Life-Cycle Costs). Recent years have seen a surge of interest and tremendous advance in PHM (Prognostics and Health Management) methods that detect, diagnose, and predict the effects of adverse events. The PHM methods enable proactive maintenance decisions, giving rise to adaptive reliability. In this paper, we present a RAP (Resilience Allocation Problem) whose goal is to allocate reliability and PHM efficiency to components in an engineering context. The optimally allocated reliability and PHM efficiency levels serve as the design specifications for the system RBDO (Reliability-Based Design Optimization) and the system PHM design, which can be used to derive the detailed design of components and PHM units. The RAP is demonstrated using a simplified aircraft control actuator design problem resulting in a highly resilient actuator with optimally allocated reliability, PHM efficiency and redundancy for the given parameter settings.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.341-347
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• 2011

The redundancy allocation problem (RAP) is a famous NP.complete problem that has beenstudied in the system reliability area of ships and airplanes. Recently meta-heuristic techniques have been applied in this topic, for example, genetic algorithms, simulated annealing and tabu search. In particular, tabu search (TS) has emerged as an efficient algorithmic approach for the series-parallel RAP. However, the quality of solutions found by TS depends on the initial solution. As a robust and efficient methodology for the series-parallel RAP, the hybrid metaheuristic (TSA) that is a interactive procedure between the TS and SA (simulated annealing) is developed in this paper. In the proposed algorithm, SA is used to find the diversified promising solutions so that TS can re-intensify search for the solutions obtained by the SA. We test the proposed TSA by the existing problems and compare it with the SA and TS algorithm. Computational results show that the TSA algorithm finds the global optimal solutions for all cases and outperforms the existing TS and SA in cases of 42 and 56 subsystems.