Decision tool for optimal replacement of plumbing systems

Abstract

There is a noticeable increase in pinhole corrosion in copper plumbing pipes. Home is the most valuable asset for the majority of homeowners. The possibility of falling home value and health concerns have caused considerable anxiety among affected homeowners. There is a need for a decision tool that can determine whether to continue repair or to replace the system. In this article, a model capable of replicating time-dependent failure rate is proposed to generate synthetic sequences of leak arrivals. An economically sustainable optimality criterion is exploited to designate optimal replacement time of the plumbing system. The analysis is applied to a real system.