Probabilistic Reliability Engineering

With the growing complexity of engineered systems, reliability has increased in importance throughout the twentieth century. Initially developed to meet practical needs, reliability theory has become an applied mathematical discipline that permits a priori evaluations of various reliability indices at the design stages. These evaluations help engineers choose an optimal system structure, improve methods of maintenance, and estimate the reliability on the basis of special testing. Probabilistic Reliability Engineering focuses on the creation of mathematical models for solving problems of system design. To provide readers with all necessary background material, this text incorporates a thorough review of the fundamentals of probability theory and the theory of stochastic processes. It offers clear and detailed treatment of reliability indices, the structure function, load-strength reliability models, distributions with monotone intensity functions, repairable systems, the Markov models, analysis of performance effectiveness, two-pole networks, optimal redundancy, optimal technical diagnosis, and heuristic methods in reliability. Throughout the text, an abundance of real world examples and case studies illustrate and illuminate the theoretical points under consideration.