Application of Markov renewal theory and semi-Markov decision processes in maintenance modeling and optimization of multi-unit systems

In this paper, a condition-based maintenance model for a multi-unit production system is proposed and analyzed using Markov renewal theory. The units of the system are subject to gradual deterioration, and the gradual deterioration process of each unit is described by a three-state continuous time homogeneous Markov chain with two working states and a failure state. The production rate of the system is influenced by the deterioration process and the demand is constant. The states of the units are observable through regular inspections and the decision to perform maintenance depends on the number of units in each state. The objective is to obtain the steady-state characteristics and the formula for the long-run average cost for the controlled system. The optimal policy is obtained using a dynamic programming algorithm. The result is validated using a semi-Markov decision process formulation and the policy iteration algorithm. Moreover, an analytical expression is obtained for the calculation of the mean time to initiate maintenance using the first passage time theory.     

纤维缠绕复合材料夹芯圆柱体高应变率压缩吸能机理

为研究纤维缠绕复合材料夹芯圆柱体吸能元件在高应变率冲击压缩载荷作用下的变形损伤模式和能量吸收机理,采用ABAQUS商用有限元软件和分离式Hopkinson压杆装置开展数值模拟分析和试验验证研究。对比分析宏观力学响应规律和微观损伤破坏机理,可知吸能结构元件在高应变率压缩载荷下的力学响应具有典型的弹塑性特征,内部芯材主要产生压缩塑性损伤,而表层复合材料沿环向产生拉伸断裂破坏。研究表明,该吸能元件冲击压缩吸能特性优异,可满足水下结构平台的冲击防护和浮力储备要求。     

The effect of sintering and cooling process on geometry distortion and mechanical properties transition of PTFE/Al reactive materials

In this research, the effect of the sintering and cooling process on geometry distortion and mechanical properties of PTFE/Al reactive material is investigated. Six particularly selected sintering temperatures, three different cooling modes (annealing cooling, normalizing cooling and rapid cooling), three different initial cooling temperatures, as well as six different final cooling temperatures were designed to compare the effects of sintering temperature, cooling rate, initial cooling temperature and final cooling temperature on the properties of reactive materials. Geometry distortion was quantitatively analyzed by a statistic on the dimensional changes of the specimens and microscopic morphology. A mechanical response properties transition from brittle to ductile was found and analyzed. By combining the thermodynamic properties of PTFE and unsteady heat conduction theory, mechanisms of cooling induced morphology change, temperature induced distortion and strength decrease were obtained. The results showed that the cooling rate has the most significant effect on the morphology transformation, while initial cooling temperature has more significant effect on the dimensional distortion than final cooling temperature. As to the mechanical properties transition from brittle to plastic, a more prominent effect of initial cooling temperature than cooling rate and final temperature was revealed.     

Optimal control policies for an inventory system with commitment lead time

We consider a firm which faces a Poisson customer demand and uses a base‐stock policy to replenish its inventories from an outside supplier with a fixed lead time. The firm can use a preorder strategy which allows the customers to place their orders before their actual need. The time from a customer's order until the date a product is actually needed is called commitment lead time. The firm pays a commitment cost which is strictly increasing and convex in the length of the commitment lead time. For such a system, we prove the optimality of bang‐bang and all‐or‐nothing policies for the commitment lead time and the base‐stock policy, respectively. We study the case where the commitment cost is linear in the length of the commitment lead time in detail. We show that there exists a unit commitment cost threshold which dictates the optimality of either a buy‐to‐order (BTO) or a buy‐to‐stock strategy. The unit commitment cost threshold is increasing in the unit holding and backordering costs and decreasing in the mean lead time demand. We determine the conditions on the unit commitment cost for profitability of the BTO strategy and study the case with a compound Poisson customer demand.     

基于大数据分析的网络管理智能化

军事通信网综合管理系统中,各专业网络运行情况的主要数据都可汇总到综合网管数据库中。这些网管数据中隐含了网络运行的几乎全部信息,但即使是最有经验的网络管理专家面对这些繁杂的数据也只能望洋兴叹。面对大数据的智能分析技术则有可能实现网络运行态势的高度可视化,充分理解和详细把握全网运行状态,像知识、经验、联想丰富的专家一样不知疲倦地对网络运行状况进行全面细致地分析,从海量的网管数据中发现网络故障的蛛丝马迹,发现隐含的问题,预知网络变化。论文介绍了利用大数据分析技术实现网络管理智能化的现实目标,基于性能的网络异常预测预报、基于性能和事件的故障分析诊断、网络运行知识的挖掘利用等方面的功能和技术途径。     

基于两阶段算法的半潜维修船功能舱室布局

以维修舱空间、舱室邻接、舱室全局位置三个指标为目标函数,以满足高初稳性要求、保证船舶浮态等为约束条件,建立技术可行前提下半潜维修船功能舱室布局优化模型。通过设计贪婪取走启发式算法与规划求解相结合的两阶段算法,实现对模型的求解。以载重为5×10~4 t的半潜船体为载体进行设计,得到半潜维修船功能舱室优化布局方案。随着维修设备质量系数的增加,可行的布局方案数呈上升趋势。该方法可提高半潜维修船在功能舱室布局过程中决策的科学性。     

An attacker‐defender model for analyzing the vulnerability of initial attack in wildfire suppression

Wildfire managers use initial attack (IA) to control wildfires before they grow large and become difficult to suppress. Although the majority of wildfire incidents are contained by IA, the small percentage of fires that escape IA causes most of the damage. Therefore, planning a successful IA is very important. In this article, we study the vulnerability of IA in wildfire suppression using an attacker‐defender Stackelberg model. The attacker's objective is to coordinate the simultaneous ignition of fires at various points in a landscape to maximize the number of fires that cannot be contained by IA. The defender's objective is to optimally dispatch suppression resources from multiple fire stations located across the landscape to minimize the number of wildfires not contained by IA. We use a decomposition algorithm to solve the model and apply the model on a test case landscape. We also investigate the impact of delay in the response, the fire growth rate, the amount of suppression resources, and the locations of fire stations on the success of IA.     

美国空军研究实验室组织管理与科研规划分析

美国空军研究实验室是一个在空中、太空和网络空间领域处于全球领先地位的科研机构,承担着美国空军国防高技术项目的规划、管理和实施工作,是美国空军保持技术优势的重要研究力量。本文剖析了美国空军实验室的使命任务、组织管理和科研规划,总结了实验室在人才培养和科研任务制定方面的经验和方法。     

Value management of diagnostic equipment with cancelation,no‐show,and emergency patients

Magnetic resonance imaging and other multifunctional diagnostic facilities, which are considered as scarce resources of hospitals, typically provide services to patients with different medical needs. This article examines the admission policies during the appointment management of such facilities. We consider two categories of patients: regular patients who are scheduled in advance through an appointment system and emergency patients with randomly generated demands during the workday that must be served as soon as possible. According to the actual medical needs of patients, regular patients are segmented into multiple classes with different cancelation rates, no‐show probabilities, unit value contributions, and average service times. Management makes admission decisions on whether or not to accept a service request from a regular patient during the booking horizon to improve the overall value that could be generated during the workday. The decisions should be made by considering the cancelation and no‐show behavior of booked patients as well as the emergency patients that would have to be served because any overtime service would lead to higher costs. We studied the optimal admission decision using a continuous‐time discrete‐state dynamic programming model. Identifying an optimal policy for this discrete model is analytically intractable and numerically inefficient because the state is multidimensional and infinite. We propose to study a deterministic counterpart of the problem (i.e., the fluid control problem) and to develop a time‐based fluid policy that is shown to be asymptotically optimal for large‐scale problems. Furthermore, we propose to adopt a mixed fluid policy that is developed based on the information obtained from the fluid control problem. Numerical experiments demonstrate that this improved policy works effectively for small‐scale problems. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 287–304, 2016     

面向多核网络分组处理系统的线程亲和缓冲区管理机制

基于通用多核架构的网络分组处理系统性能受到诸如分组IO开销高、多核共享内存及进程调度竞争大、页表缓冲表项失效率高等问题的困扰。为此提出一种基于通用多核网络分组处理系统、面向高速分组转发应用的线程亲和缓冲区硬件管理机制,并在网络专用协处理引擎上实现。该机制采用无中断的线程亲和调度策略,将包含控制信息与缓冲区地址信息的描述符和分组数据按照分组处理的线程号链式地对应加载在多个地址连续的共享缓冲区中。基于通用多核和现场可编程门阵列平台进行报文转发测试,实验结果表明,采用线程亲和缓冲区管理机制能使平均报文转发处理性能提升12.4%,有效地降低IO开销和TLB表项失效率。