A four-phase algorithm to improve reliability in series-parallel systems with redundancy allocation

作者：Nezhad A Ghafarian Salehi^*; Jahromi A Eshraghniaye; Salmani M H; Ghasemi F

来源：Scientia Iranica, 2014, 21(3): 1072-1082.

• Reliability optimization
• Redundancy allocation
• Seties-parallel system
• Ant colony optimization
• Heuristic algorithms
• Parameter design
• Taguchi approach

In general, reliability is the ability of a system to perform and maintain its functions in routine, as well as hostile or unexpected, circumstances. The Redundancy Allocation Problem (RAP) is a combinatorial problem which maximizes system reliability by discrete simultaneous selection from available components. The main purpose of this study is to develop an effective approach to solve RAP, expeditiously. %26lt;br%26gt;In this study, the basic assumption is considering Erlang distribution density for component failure rates. Another assumption is that each subsystem can have one of cold-standby or active redundancy strategies. The RAP is a NP-Hard problem which cannot be solved in reasonable time using exact optimization techniques. Therefore, an approach that combines an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm as a meta-heuristic phase, and three other heuristics, is used to develop a solving methodology for RAP. Finally, to prove the efficiency of the proposed approach, some well-known benchmarks in the literature are solved and discussed in detail. 2014 Sharif University of Technology.

• 出版日期2014-6