A new efficient algorithm for computing the imprecise reliability of monotone systems

Reliability analysis of complex systems by partial information about reliability of components and by different conditions of independence of components may be carried out by means of the imprecise probability theory which provides a unified framework (natural extension, lower and upper previsions) for computing the system reliability. However, the application of imprecise probabilities to reliability analysis meets with a complexity of optimization problems which have to be solved for obtaining the system reliability measures. Therefore, an efficient simplified algorithm to solve and decompose the optimization problems is proposed in the paper. This algorithm allows us to practically implement reliability analysis of monotone systems under partial and heterogeneous information about reliability of components and under conditions of the component independence or the lack of information about independence. A numerical example illustrates the algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]