Novel Approach for Multicriteria Optimization of Life-Cycle Preventive and Essential Maintenance of Deteriorating Structures

In this paper, the performance of structures is modeled using lifetime functions. Specifically, the unavailability and redundancy are used as performance indicators, based on which optimum maintenance strategies are sought. Models that reflect the separate or combined effects of essential and preventive maintenance on the unavailability are presented. A novel optimization approach is proposed in which the problem is formulated to provide optimum maintenance strategies with either or both essential and preventive maintenance actions. Genetic algorithms are used to solve this problem. In this paper, multiple essential maintenance types and multiple preventive maintenance types are considered, and regular or irregular preventive maintenance time-intervals are considered. Furthermore, essential maintenance is treated as performance-based, i.e., essential maintenance is only applied when a performance threshold is reached, and an algorithm is proposed for conducting the optimization under uncertainty. Although applicable to any type of structure, the proposed approach is illustrated on a highway bridge example.