Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Systems Reliability Using The Flow Graph, Kenneth Edward Farrier

Dissertations and Theses

The problem of calculating the reliability of a complex system of interacting elements is delineated to a linear system, no element of the system having a reliability distribution in terms of any other e1ement of the system, where only one path is taken through the system at a time. A precise definition is then developed to specify the reliability of the linear, single path at a time, system. A precise and concise generating function is found that effortlessly produces the reliability of the linear, single path at a time, system directly from the reliability flew graph of the system.