Minimal path set importance in complex systems

Abstract

To find the best mode for system design in reliability optimization, risk engineers around the world use the importance measure as a basic tool. This paper introduces a new importance measure taking into account minimal path sets of the system. It helps to optimize the system designs that occur in many situations. For instance, this importance measure can be used (a) in identifying important components of any complex system and (b) solving constrained redundancy optimization problems. This is illustrated by providing two heuristic algorithms. In the first algorithm, this measure is used to find important components of any complex system ensuring improved system reliability. The second algorithm is used to solve a constrained redundancy optimization problem for any general coherent system giving (near) optimal solutions in 1-neighborhood. The results show that the new importance measure is easily applicable, unlike the classical ones. Hence, it serves as a very useful tool in measuring the important component(s) and solving constrained redundancy optimization problems of complex systems. Thus, it can be considered as a good alternative to the existing importance measures.

Importance measure-based resilience management: Review, methodology and perspectives on maintenance

“…To the best of our knowledge, there is still little research on system maintenance based on importance measures from operational logic or mode perspectives. What's more, the development of path set importance measures has provided us with some inspiration for system operation design [126]. Therefore, it may be an interesting topic to use importance measures to develop resilience-oriented operation strategies considering disturbance conditions.…”