Reliability Modelling of Multiphase Systems, Including the Reconfiguration of Redundancy Structures

Abstract

Two rather different approaches on reliability modelling of multiphase systems are presented. In the first approach, a system fault persists continuously. In the other approach, the system can compensate a system fault by reconfiguration of the redundancy structure with changes of the corresponding fault tree. The Boolean parts of this paper introduce what we call a Phase Idempotence Law and its consequences.

Key Words:

• Fault tree
• permanent system fault
• Phase Idempotence Law
• structurally compensatable system fault
• system failure probability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Uwe K. Rakowsky

Uwe K. Rakowsky Engineer Diploma and a Doctor Engineer Degree in safety engineering from the University of Wuppertal (Germany) in 1988 and 1991, respectively, was granted venia legendi in safety and reliability engineering in 2000 from the University of Wuppertal where he was employed as an assistant professor in the Transportation System Safety Section from 1992 to 2000. He was a visiting Professor at the Stord-Haugesund University College in Norway in 1996 and a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo from 1998 to 1999. Since 2000 he has been RAMS programme manager with Vossloh Kiepe in Düsseldorf, a company, which produces electric equipments for locomotives, light rail vehicles, trams, trolleys, and electric busses. He has published three books and more than thirty papers. He is a member of several engineering and scientific societies.

Winfrid G. Schneeweiss

Winfrid G. Schneeweiss Professor Emeritus of computer engineering at the Fern University of Hagen, the German university for distance studies. He is now the manager of LiLoLe Publishing GmbH, serving life-long learning especially in the field of safety and reliability modelling. He earned a Diploma degree in physics from the University of Frankfurt in 1957, a Doctor Degree from the Technical University of Munich in 1968, and his venia legendi for computer science from the Karlsruhe University in 1973. Prior to joining Fern he worked for 20 years as a research engineer with the Max Planck Society, the German Aerospace Research Institute (DLR), and Siemens. He has published 12 books and about 150 papers with emphasis on fault tree analysis and Petri net design. He is a member of several engineering and scientific societies.