Optimal Replacement of Durable Equipment in Heat Transmission Systems

摘要

In this paper, the issue of maintaining an optimal level of services provided by heat transmission systems working in indefinite time is analyzed. In such systems, a stable level of services can be preserved only if parts of the heat transmission pipelines are periodically replaced. It is shown that the replacement policies that maximize total discounted net benefits in indefinite time are stationary (i.e., intervals of the pipelines of the same length have to be replaced in each period). The paper presents methods for determining stationary replacement policies in homogeneous and non-homogeneous heat transmission pipelines. Moreover, it is shown that, for the purpose of analyzing stationary replacement, complex heat transmission networks can be decomposed into a set of non-homogeneous pipelines. Such a decomposition simplifies the analysis and makes the methods presented useful for investigating heat transmission networks of any size.