Evaluating and Improving the Effectiveness of Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Programs: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Framework

Motor vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs are designed to identify high-emitting vehicles and mitigate their impacts on air quality and climate. I/M programs have been traditionally ranked superior among various vehicle emission control measures by the results of cost-benefit analysis, based on the assumption that these programs will achieve the targeted emission reduction outcomes. However, the actual effects of I/M programs may be greatly uncertain and when this uncertainty is taken into account, these programs may become suboptimal. This study develops a new a cost-benefit analysis framework that links various program design consideration, such as program participation rate, identification rate and effective repair rate, to the public health benefits as well as costs of the programs. This framework helps decision makers to investigate minimum implementation requirements that at least ensure the benefits are greater than the costs of implementing the programs in order to improve the overall effectiveness of the I/M programs. To illustrate the applications of the framework, it was applied to a particulate matter oriented I/M program targeting all diesel-fueled vehicles in the city of Bangkok, Thailand, a large metropolitan area that has been suffering from severe ambient PM pollution mainly attributable to its wide use of diesel-fueled vehicles and motorcycles. It was found that the health benefits achieved from the program are sensitive to several key program design elements, including participation rate and problem vehicle identification rate, fraction of effective repairs and illegal operation rate. Other variables, such as the testing cut-points and vehicle population growth rate, only have modest effects on the overall emission reduction and consequent health benefits. Overall, the performance of multiple variables associated with I/M program design needs to be improved simultaneous in order to achieve the targeted benefits of the program.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Inspection Routing and Scheduling for Engineering Management

Technological advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)have revolutionized various industries,enabling the widespread adoption of UAV-based solutions.In engineering management,UAV-based inspection has emerged as a highly efficient method for identifying hidden risks in high-risk construction environments,surpassing traditional inspection techniques.Building on this foundation,this paper delves into the optimization of UAV inspection routing and scheduling,addressing the complexity introduced by factors such as no-fly zones,monitoring-interval time windows,and multiple monitoring rounds.To tackle this challenging problem,we propose a mixed-integer linear programming(MILP)model that optimizes inspection task assignments,monitoring sequence schedules,and charging decisions.The comprehensive consideration of these factors differentiates our problem from conventional vehicle routing problem(VRP),leading to a mathematically intractable model for commercial solvers in the case of large-scale instances.To overcome this limitation,we design a tailored variable neighborhood search(VNS)metaheuristic,customizing the algorithm to efficiently solve our model.Extensive numerical experiments are conducted to validate the efficacy of our proposed algorithm,demonstrating its scalability for both large-scale and real-scale instances.Sensitivity experiments and a case study based on an actual engineering project are also conducted,providing valuable insights for engineering managers to enhance inspection work efficiency.

Load Testing in Bridge Maintenance

Highway bridges are a crucial component in road transportation networks.These bridges must be maintained according to usage requirements regularly.Test results must be considered before devising a maintenance plan.Load testing is a vital method of assessing the quality and performance of highway bridges.The outcomes of these tests facilitate the formulation of maintenance plans.This article examines the definition of load testing,its significance,and the process of execution,with the goal of providing support for bridge inspection and maintenance.

Availability-based maintenance optimization under unequal inspection period and imperfect repair

Taking the multi-component system as research object, a maintenance optimization model based on the unequal inspection period and imperfect repair is established by considering the requirement of expected availability for improving the system＇s availability. An age reduction factor is used to describe the effect of imperfect repair, and the modelling approach for the unequal inspection period is proposed. Unavailable situations are classified into three kinds of independent cases, and the availability is calculated accordingly. Based on the analysis of the relationship between the unavailable cases and the unequal inspection period, an optimization model under imperfect repair is established to optimize the system＇s expected availability. A case study of a wind turbine is provided, and three key components, i.e. gearbox, generator and spindle, are considered. The optimization results of the unequal inspection period model and the equal inspection period model are compared. The results show that the unequal inspection period model based on availability can update the maintenance plan so as to optimize maintenance activities and improve the system＇s availability.

Joint optimization of inspection, maintenance, and spare ordering policy considering defective products loss

This paper proposes a joint inspection-based maintenance and spare ordering optimization policy that considers the problem of integrated inspection,preventive maintenance,spare ordering,and quality control for a four-state single-unit manufacturing system.When an inspection detects a minor defect,a second phase inspection is initiated and a regular order is placed.Product quality begins to deteriorate when the system undergoes a severe defect.To counter this,an advanced replacement of the minor defective system is carried out at the Jth second phase inspection.If a severe defect is recognized prior to the Jth inspection,or if system failure occurs,preventive or corrective replacement is executed.The timeliness of replacement depends on the availability of spare.We adopt two modes of ordering:a regular order and an emergency order.Meanwhile,a threshold level is introduced to determine whether an emergency order is preferred even when the regular order is already ordered but has not yet arrived.The optimal joint inspection-based maintenance and spare ordering policy is formulated by minimizing the expected cost per unit time.A simulation algorithm is proposed to obtain the optimal two-phase inspection interval,threshold level and advanced replacement interval.Results from several numerical examples demonstrate that,in terms of the expected cost per unit time,our proposed model is superior to some existing models.

Doing a Good Job in Inspection and Maintenance of Facilities and Equipments in Bulk Curing Barn

Due to the limited management funds and insufficient management efforts,curing barns in traditional tobacco area are outdated and equipments are seriously damaged,which affects the normal operation and increases the maintenance cost of bulk curing barns,bringing adverse effects on tobacco leaf curing in the coming year and the sustainable development of tobacco industry in the future.To ensure the normal operation of curing barns and effectively prolong the service life of curing barns during tobacco leaf curing,we should do a good job in the publicity of management and maintenance,improve the system of management and maintenance,raise funds for management and maintenance,inspect facilities and equipments,carefully maintain equipments in curing barn and strictly perform examination and inspection.

Strategies for Project-oriented Teaching Design of Automobile Inspection and Maintenance Course

Automobile Inspection and Maintenance Course is relatively practical and professional.Therefore,teachers need to provide students with opportunities for practice as much as possible,so that students can realize the integration of theory and practice,improve teaching efficiency.Project-oriented teaching design can enable students to participate in the practical training and maintenance of automotive engines,which helps students understand the theories in the book.This article mainly analyzes the strategies for teaching design of project-oriented Automobile Inspection and Maintenance Course.

Analysis of Maintenance and Inspection Status of Aeronautical Machinery and Improvement Countermeasures

In the daily operation process of airlines,aviation machinery maintenance and inspection work play an important role.At present,the quality of life of the people in our country is constantly improving.In daily travel,we have not only used cars,trains and other means of transportation,but also started to choose airplanes as the first choice in a higher frequency.In recent years,with the improvement of living standards,more and more people choose to travel during holidays.Therefore,the traffic volume of aviation aircraft is increasing year by year,but it also increases the risk of aviation aircraft failure,so it is particularly important to do a good job in the maintenance and inspection of aviation machinery.In this paper,according to the current situation of aviation machinery maintenance and inspection,put forward targeted improvement measures to ensure the safety and stability of China's aviation aircraft operation.

Condition-based Maintenance Optimization for Gamma Deteriorating Systems under Performance-based Contracting

With the further development of service-oriented,performance-based contracting(PBC)has been widely adopted in industry and manufacturing.However,maintenance optimization problems under PBC have not received enough attention.To further extend the scope of PBC’s application in the field of maintenance optimization,we investigate the condition-based maintenance(CBM)optimization for gamma deteriorating systems under PBC.Considering the repairable single-component system subject to the gamma degradation process,this paper proposes a CBM optimization model to maximize the profit and improve system performance at a relatively low cost under PBC.In the proposed CBM model,the first inspection interval has been considered in order to reduce the inspection frequency and the cost rate.Then,a particle swarm algorithm(PSO)and related solution procedure are presented to solve the multiple decision variables in our proposed model.In the end,a numerical example is provided so as to demonstrate the superiority of the presented model.By comparing the proposed policy with the conventional ones,the superiority of our proposed policy is proved,which can bring more profits to providers and improve performance.Sensitivity analysis is conducted in order to research the effect of corrective maintenance cost and time required for corrective maintenance on optimization policy.A comparative study is given to illustrate the necessity of distinguishing the first inspection interval or not.

A Survey of Concepts Location Enhancement for Program Comprehension and Maintenance

When correcting a fault, adding a new concept or feature, or adapting a system to conform to a new platform, software engineers must first find the relevant parts of the code that correspond to a particular change. This is termed as concept or feature location process. Several techniques have been introduced which automate some or all of the process of concept location. Those techniques rely heavily on code comprehension as it is considered a prerequisite when attempting to maintain any software system. It provides a comprehensive overview of large body work which is beneficial to researchers and practitioners. This paper presents an overview of code comprehension categorization and consequence. A systematic literature survey of concept location enhancement techniques is also presented. Moreover, the paper presents an overview of the role of concept location in program comprehension and maintenance and discusses information retrieval techniques to advance concept location.

Schedule of Wartime Maintenance Unit Based on Dynamic Programming

In order to solve the problems of scheduling the maintenance units in the battlefield, the dynamic programming method in model construction is used; the composition of dynamic planning process is explained; and the maintenance unit allocation model is established. By the solved dynamic programming model,the best allocation strategy for maintenance unit obtained in the battlefield will provide a basis for making maintenance unit allocation decisions in the future battlefield.

An Approach to Detect Structural Development Defects in Object-Oriented Programs

Structural development defects essentially refer to code structure that violates object-oriented design principles. They make program maintenance challenging and deteriorate software quality over time. Various detection approaches, ranging from traditional heuristic algorithms to machine learning methods, are used to identify these defects. Ensemble learning methods have strengthened the detection of these defects. However, existing approaches do not simultaneously exploit the capabilities of extracting relevant features from pre-trained models and the performance of neural networks for the classification task. Therefore, our goal has been to design a model that combines a pre-trained model to extract relevant features from code excerpts through transfer learning and a bagging method with a base estimator, a dense neural network, for defect classification. To achieve this, we composed multiple samples of the same size with replacements from the imbalanced dataset MLCQ1. For all the samples, we used the CodeT5-small variant to extract features and trained a bagging method with the neural network Roberta Classification Head to classify defects based on these features. We then compared this model to RandomForest, one of the ensemble methods that yields good results. Our experiments showed that the number of base estimators to use for bagging depends on the defect to be detected. Next, we observed that it was not necessary to use a data balancing technique with our model when the imbalance rate was 23%. Finally, for blob detection, RandomForest had a median MCC value of 0.36 compared to 0.12 for our method. However, our method was predominant in Long Method detection with a median MCC value of 0.53 compared to 0.42 for RandomForest. These results suggest that the performance of ensemble methods in detecting structural development defects is dependent on specific defects.

A Mathematical Methodology for the Preventive Study of the Failure Rate to Optimize the Maintenance Program of a Public Work: Economic-Management Aspects for Safety and Quality

In this paper we analyze the problem of the assessment of the failure rate of the complex public work system and the engineering part of it (bridge, tunnel, etc.), examining the case of serious maintenance problems, such as those which occurred in the recent disaster of the "Morandi bridge". The original mathematical methodology envisaged makes it possible to optimize the safety and quality scenarios of the operation and infrastructure in question, also from an economic-management point of view, evaluating every aspect in an integrated way and for the entire period life. The scientific results obtained are of particular interest for the study of maximization of the planning protocols of "terotechnological" interventions, providing a contribution to the science of programmed maintenance for the mobility networks and for more complex parts such as bridges and tunnels.

DELAY-TIME MODEL BASED ON IMPERFECT INSPECTION OF AIRCRAFT STRUCTURE WITHIN FINITE TIME SPAN

According to the failure characteristics of aircraft structure, a delay-time model is an effective method to optimize maintenance for aircraft structure. To imitate the practical situation as much as possible, imperfect inspections, thresholds and repeated intervals are concerned in delay-time models. Since the suggestion by the existing delay-time models that the inspections are implemented in an infinite time span lacks practical value, a de- lay-time model with imperfect inspection within a finite time span is proposed. In the model, the nonhomogenous Poisson process is adopted to obtain the renewal probabilities between two different successive inspections on de- fects or failures. An algorithm is applied based on the Nelder-Mead downhill simplex method to solve the model. Finally, a numerical example proves the validity and effectiveness of the model.

Risk evaluation for the task transfer of an aircraft maintenance program based on a multielement connection number

This paper proposes a framework for evaluating the efficacy and suitability of maintenance programs with a focus on quantitative risk assessment in the domain of aircraft maintenance task transfer. The analysis is anchored in the principles of Maintenance Steering Group-3 (MSG-3) logic decision paradigms. The paper advances a holistic risk assessment index architecture tailored for the task transfer of maintenance programs. Utilizing the analytic network process (ANP), the study quantifies the weight interrelationships among diverse variables, incorporating expert-elicited subjective weighting. A multielement connection number-based evaluative model is employed to characterize decision-specific data, thereby facilitating the quantification of task transfer-associated risk through the appraisal of set-pair potentials. Moreover, the paper conducts a temporal risk trend analysis founded on partial connection numbers of varying orders. This analytical construct serves to streamline the process of risk assessment pertinent to maintenance program task transfer. The empirical component of this research, exemplified through a case study of the Boeing 737NG aircraft maintenance program, corroborates the methodological robustness and pragmatic applicability of the proposed framework in the quantification and analysis of mission transfer risk.

A two-stage optimization method for unmanned aerial vehicle inspection of an oil and gas pipeline network

Oil and gas pipeline networks are a key link in the coordinated development of oil and gas both upstream and downstream.To improve the reliability and safety of the oil and gas pipeline network, inspections are implemented to minimize the risk of leakage, spill and theft, as well as documenting actual incidents. In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles have been recognized as a promising option for inspection due to their high efficiency. However, the integrated optimization of unmanned aerial vehicle inspection for oil and gas pipeline networks, including physical feasibility, the performance of mission, cooperation, real-time implementation and three-dimensional(3-D) space, is a strategic problem due to its large-scale,complexity as well as the need for efficiency. In this work, a novel mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is proposed that takes into account the constraints of the mission scenario and the safety performance of unmanned aerial vehicles. To minimize the total length of the inspection path, the model is solved by a two-stage solution method. Finally, a virtual pipeline network and a practical pipeline network are set as two examples to demonstrate the performance of the optimization schemes. Moreover, compared with the traditional genetic algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm, the self-adaptive genetic simulated annealing algorithm proposed in this paper provides strong stability.

Development and Application of Maintenance Template in Pressurized Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plant

Good practices of maintenance optimization in nuclear power field need to be effectively consolidated and inherited,and maintenance optimization can provide technology support to create a long-term reliable and economic operation for nuclear power plants( NPPs) especially for a large number of nuclear powers under construction. Based on the development and application of maintenance template in developed countries,and combining with reliability-centered maintenance( RCM) analysis results and maintenance experience data over the past ten years in domestic NPPs, the development process of maintenance template was presented for Chinese pressurized water reactor( PWR) NPP,and the application of maintenance template to maintenance program development and maintenance optimization combined with cases were demonstrated. A shortcut was provided for improving the efficiency of maintenance optimization in domestic PWR NPP,and help to realize a safe,reliable,and economic operation for domestic NPPs.

FUZZY OPTIMIZATION MODEL OF MAINTENANCE DESIGN FOR PRODUCT LEVEL REUSE

Most used products must be maintained before they are reused. The modelingmethod for maintenance design of product level reuse based on quality function deployment ispresented. A fuzzy linear optimization model is developed under financial uncertainty. Objective ofthe model is to maximize improvement rate of customer satisfaction level. Maintenance cost constrainis fuzzy. The algorithm for solution to the model is given. Its optimized results not only giveattention to satisfaction degree of cost constraint, but also maximize objective value. Anillustrative example involved water bump reuse is studied and the results show that the proposedmodel can effectively help maintenance planner determine the better design scheme.

Accelerated solution of the transmission maintenance schedule problem:a Bayesian optimization approach

To maximize the maintenance willingness of the owner of transmission lines,this study presents a transmission maintenance scheduling model that considers the energy constraints of the power system and the security constraints of on-site maintenance operations.Considering the computational complexity of the mixed integer programming(MIP)problem,a machine learning(ML)approach is presented to solve the transmission maintenance scheduling model efficiently.The value of the branching score factor value is optimized by Bayesian optimization(BO)in the proposed algorithm,which plays an important role in the size of the branch-and-bound search tree in the solution process.The test case in a modified version of the IEEE 30-bus system shows that the proposed algorithm can not only reach the optimal solution but also improve the computational efficiency.

Optimization of post-warranty sequential inspection for second-hand products

This paper considers an optimal sequential inspection schedule for a second-hand product after that the free nonrenewable warranty is expired. The length of warranty is prespecified and during the warranty period, the product is minimally repaired by the dealer when it fails. Following the expiration of the non-renewing warranty, the product is inspected and upgraded sequentially a fixed number of times at the expenses of the customer.At each inspection, the failure rate of the product is reduced proportionally so that the product is upgraded. The product is assumed to deteriorate as it ages and the replacement of the product occurs when a fixed number of inspections are rendered. In addition,the intervals between two successive inspections are assumed to decrease monotonically. The main objective of this paper is to determine the optimal improvement level to upgrade the product at each inspection so that the expected maintenance cost during the life cycle of the product is minimized from the perspective of the customer. Under the given cost structures, we derive an explicit formula to obtain the expected maintenance cost incurred during the life cycle of the product and discuss the method to find the optimal level of the improvement analytically in case the failure times follow the Weibull distribution. Numerical results are analyzed to observe the impact of relevant parameters on the optimal solution.