Reliability analysis for continuous degrading systems subject to multi-level failure dependence

Abstract

This article explicitly models multi-level failure dependence existing in continuous degrading systems with multiple degrading components. Dependence within the component level is specified as that arrived shocks increase the vulnerability to inherent degradation. Dependence among components refers to the fact that the degradation of a particular component can be accelerated by others. The Gamma process is employed as a comprehensive framework for modeling the dependence above. A compound Poisson process and normal distribution are both introduced to describe the stochastic characteristics of random shocks. Procedures for obtaining analytical solutions and simulation results of reliability analysis are both presented. At last, an illustrative example of a hydraulic system is studied to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method.

Keywords:

• Continuous degradation
• multi-component systems
• multi-level failure dependence
• random shock
• reliability analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this research from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2021M691300), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20210739), Natural Science Foundation of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (No. 21KJB410002), and Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province (No. 2021SJA2049).

Notes on contributors

Yingsai Cao

Yingsai Cao is an associate professor at the School of Management, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang. He graduated from the School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics with a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering. His current research interests are reliability analysis and maintenance optimization.

Chen Lu

Chen Lu is a Master's student at the School of Management, Jiangsu University. His research interest is reliability analysis.