A new approach for constraining failure probability of a critical deteriorating system

In this paper, we focus on a continuously deteriorating critical equipment which its failure cannot be measured by cost criterion. For these types of systems like military systems, nuclear systems, etc it is extremely important to avoid failure during the actual operation of the system. In this paper we propose an approach which constrains failure probability to a pre-specified value. This value guarantees a chance of failure less than or equal to the pre-specified value during real operation of the system. The inspection periods and maintenance policy are found in two phases. Failure probability is limited to a pre-specified value In the first phase, and in the second phase optimum maintenance thresholds and inspection periods are obtained in such a way that minimize long-run expected costs. Due to the complexity of the model, Monte Carlo simulation is used to obtain optimum results.