Complex System Reliability Optimisation: Further Assessment of a Multicriteria Approach

Abstract:

Optimal allocation of reliability to components of a system is one of the several ways of ensuring high system reliability in design. The problem which is typically formulated as single criterion optimisation encounters difficulty when the analytic system reliability expression is intractable usually as a result of complex system configuration. The current work re-examines a novel approach previously developed by the authors which takes a multicriteria view of the problem on the basis of the minimum cut sets of a system, and thus avoids finding the top level system reliability before optimisation. The model and methodology was applied to two complex system reliability allocation problems: a classical one and one associated with electricity transmission. The results were consistent with previously obtained ones by the authors and with the reliability importance of some notable components.

• Periodical: International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa (Volume 25)
• Pages: 108-118
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/JERA.25.108
• Online since: August 2016
• Authors: Stephen Boakye Twum*, Elaine Aspinwall
• Keywords: Component, Cost, Cut Set, Multicriteria, Optimization, Reliability Allocation, System

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