Evaluation of reliability bounds by set covering models

✍ Scribed by M.V. Koutras; S. Tsitmidelis; V. Zissimopoulos

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 168 KB
• Volume: 61
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-7152
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-7152(02)00346-2

✦ Synopsis

In the present article, we deal with the problem of developing a systematic procedure for evaluating the general reliability bounds developed recently by Fu and Koutras (Statist. Probab. Lett. 22 (1995) 137). More speciÿcally, we prove that, the identiÿcation of the optimal bounds can be achieved by transforming the set-theoretic and probabilistic conditions associated with the bounds to an equivalent set covering problem (SC). As a consequence, available solution algorithms for the SC (exact or heuristic) can be exploited to derive very tough approximation intervals for a general system's reliability at very competitive computer times as compared to the respective exact reliability evaluation algorithms.