Solving the redundancy allocation problem of k-out-of-n with non-exponential repairable componentsusing optimization via simulation approach

In this article, a new model and a novel solving method are provided to address the non-exponential redundancy allocation problem in series-parallel k-out-of-n systems with repairable components based on Optimization Via Simulation (OVS) technique. Despite the previous studies, in this model, the failure and repair times of each component were considered to have non-negative exponential distributions. This assumption makes the model closer to the reality where the majority of used components have greater chance to face a breakdown in comparison to new ones. The main objective of this research is the optimization of Mean Time to the First Failure (MTTFF) of the system via allocating the best redundant components to each subsystem. Since this objective function of the problem could not be explicitly mentioned, the simulation technique was applied to model the problem, and di erent experimental designs were produced using DOE methods. To solve the problem, some meta-Heuristic Algorithms were integrated with the simulation method. Several experiments were carried out to test the proposed approach; as a result, the proposed approach is much more real than previous models, and the near optimum solutions are also promising.