a-Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Canada
b-Department of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, and
c-Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an analytical approach to assess reliability networks with self-loop units. The proposed approach uses the flow-graph concept and moment generating function (MGF) to analyze a system with series, parallel or mixed configuration of self loop units. The self loop unit presents the embedded failure detection and recovery mechanisms in the unit. The newly developed analytical approach provides the probability of the system failure, and system mean and standard deviation time to failure.
Keywords: block diagram; failure detection; flow-graph; reliability