Characterization of optimal age-replacement policies

The intention of the effort presented is to characterize the solution to a general class of preventive maintenance optimization problems. Successive lengths of operating periods and the successive repair times for a piece of equipment are each assumed to be i.i.d. Weibull random variables. The equipment is subjected to an age replacement preventive maintenance policy and the successive preventive maintenance times are assumed to be i.i.d. Weibull random variables. An optimal age replacement policy is a policy, T/sub age/*, that maximizes A/sub avg/(T/sub use/), the average availability of the equipment over its useful life (T/sub use/