On the Determination of Large-Scale System Reliability

A new, exact formulation for the reliability index of mean frequency of system failure is developed which is particularly suitable for application to large-scale systems. This approach has advantages over other available methods in that it requires neither the analysis of each system state nor the identification of all system cut-sets. Reliability evaluation is achieved by decomposing the system state space into a hierarchy of subsets and reformulating the frequency index as a function of these subsets. The method is applicable to a broad range of coherent systems including multiple-source multiple-demand networks with two-state repairable capacity-limited components. An example illustrating the application of the method is given.