Degradation Assessment in Complex Systems

Components condition could change dynamically because of various dependencies existing in complex systems since usually not only physical connections exist in the system. Various processes (as degradation or wear out, reliability decrease, failures) affecting one component have influence to condition of other components as well. Current paper is devoted to the analysis and development of mathematical models to the reliability assessment of network systems. Degradation as the main process in the network systems is taken into account. The main attention in present work was paid to the mathematical description of the degradation spreading mechanism in network systems. Developed recursive mathematical model allows assess degradation in network systems during various time moments. Developed methods can be applied for assessment of various risk estimates of hazardous systems such as systems at nuclear power plants.Copyright © 2006 by ASME