Sequential preventive maintenance interval determination based on Monte Carlo method for deteriorating systems

A sequential preventive maintenance (PM) simulation model is established for the system with the life distribution of degradation, assuming that corrective maintenance (CM) during the preventive maintenance interval is considered as minimal maintenance and preventive maintenance is imperfect maintenance. And the preventive maintenance effect is described by age reduction factor. According to the availability of each preventive maintenance interval, optimal preventive maintenance intervals which make systems have maximum availability are determined successively. And by means of the required minimum availability in the life cycle, the maximum number of preventive maintenance can be obtained. Finally, the model is verified by the system that obeys normal distribution. The results show that the model accords with the actual situation of the system and can provide strong support for the actual maintenance of the system.