Abstract
Binary k-out-of-n systems are commonly used reliability models in engineering practice. Many authors have extended the concept of k-out-of-n system to multi-state k-out-of-n systems. This paper proposes a binary decision diagram (BDD) based approach for binary k-out-of-n: G system and a multi-state multi-valued decision diagram (MMDD) based approach for multi-state k-out-of-n: G system. BDD and MMDD have been extensively used for representing and manipulating logic functions in many areas, including reliability modeling and analysis. In this paper, patterns of BDD/MMDD for binary/multi-state k-out-of-n: G system are summarized and proved, a two-step algorithmic process is proposed for modeling the BDD/MMDD and three case studies are implemented to demonstrate the presented methods. Complexity analysis shows that the presented method is more computationally efficient than the traditional algorithms for k-out-of-n: G system.
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Shumin Li is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Mechanical engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. She received her M.S. degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University in 2010. Her research interests include system reliability theory, decision diagrams and importance measure theory.
Shubin Si received his Ph.D. from Northwestern Polytechnical University, China (NPU) in 2006. He is currently a professor and a Ph.D. candidate supervisor at the School of Mechanical engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. His research topics include system reliability theory, importance measure theory, maintenance management systems, and decision support systems.
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Li, S., Sun, S., Si, S. et al. Decision diagram based methods and reliability analysis for k-out-of-n: G systems. J MECH SCI TECHNOL 28, 3917–3923 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-0902-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-0902-z