Reliability and Risk Analysis of Multi-state Systems with Degrading Coponents

Applications of multi-state approach to the reliability evaluation of systems composed of independent components are considered. The main emphasis is on multi-state systems with degrading components because of the importance of such an approach in safety analysis, assessment and prediction, and analysing the effectiveness of operation processes of real technical systems. The results concerned with multi-state series systems are applied to the reliability evaluation and risk function determination of a homogeneous bus transportation system. Results on homogeneous multi-state “m out of n” systems are applied to durability evaluation of a steel rope. A non-homogeneous series-parallel pipeline system composed of several lines of multi-state pipe segments is estimated as well. Moreover, the reliability evaluation of the model homogeneous multi-state parallel-series electrical energy distribution system is performed.