Optimal maintenance and repair policies in infrastructure management under uncertain facility deterioration rates: an adaptive control approach

In this paper we present two adaptive control formulations that explicitly include uncertainty in characterizing a facility's deterioration rate in the process of developing maintenance and repair policies. The formulations use condition information that stems from the operation of a facility to improve the characterization over a finite planning horizon. We discuss issues related to the implementation and computational complexity of the formulations. Through a computational study, we show that the economic benefits can be achieved by implementing the adaptive control formulations. These benefits are most significant in situations where the initial expected deterioration rate of the facility is not a good representation of its actual deterioration rate.