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This thesis is concerned with modelling inspection policies of facilities which\ud Qraduallv deteriorate in time. The context of inspection policies lends itself readily to\ud probabilistic modelling. Indeed, many of the published theoretical models to be found\ud in the literature adopt a Markov approach, where states are usually 'operating', 'operating\ud but fault present', and 'failed'. However, most of these models fail to discuss the 'fit' of\ud the model to data,a nd virtually no exampleso f actual applications or case-studiesa re to\ud be found.\ud hi a series of recent papers dating from 1984, a robust approach to solve these\ud problems has been introduced and developed as the Delay Time Model (DTM). The\ud central concept for this model is the delay time, h, of a fault which is the time lapse\ud from when a fault could first be noticed until the time when its repair can be delayed no\ud longer because of unacceptable consequences. The bottle neck in delay time modelling\ud is how to estimate the delay time distribution parameters. Two methods for estimating\ud these parameters have been developed. namely the subjective method and the objective\ud method.\ud Markov models have the advantage of an extensive body of theory. 'fliere are,\ud however. difficulties of definition, measurement, and calculation when applying Markov\ud models to real-world situations within a maintenance context. Indeed. this problem has\ud motivated the current research which ainis to explore the two modelling methodologies\ud in cases where comparison is valid, and also to gain an insight as to how robust Markov\ud inspection models can be as decision-aids where Markovian properties are not strictly\ud satisfied. It Nvill be seen that a class of inspection problems could be solved by a serni-\ud Markov model using the delay time concept. In this thesis, a typical senii-i%Ia, rkov\ud inspection model based upon the delay time concept is presented for a complex\ud repairable systein that may fail during the course of its service lifetime and the results\ud are compared. Finally, a case study of the senii-Markov inspection model and the delay\ud time model is discussed. |
