On reliability modeling and analysis of highly-reliable largesystems

摘要

Modem systems are getting more and more complex, incorporating newtechnology to meet customer's high expectations. Hardware, software anddata communications are integrated to make systems function properly.One example is a critical power system, which provides electrical powerto a data center or to semiconductor manufacturing equipment.Reliability techniques of fault-tolerance, true redundancy, multiplegrid connections, concurrent maintenance and so forth are applied indesign to provide high system reliability. The techniques make thesystem larger and more complicated in configuration and behavior.Application of modeling tools and analysis methods to such highlyreliable, large, complex and repairable systems is discussed in thispaper, based on the experience of assessing critical power systems. Theuse of reliability block diagram plus simulation is recommended as oneof the best engineering practices in planning for such large complexrepairable systems