The Entropy Method for Reliability Estimation of Systems of Binomial Model Components

摘要

The concepts of Shannon's information theory are extended. By the use of general expression of the entropy for discrete variable and additivity of information content, in association with reliability engineering theory, the formulae of the entropy method for reliability estimation of systems of differnet and same binomial model components are derived. The estimation procedure of the entropy method is simple and is illustrated by a set of examples. The results are neither conservative nor radical, the accuracy is not decreased with the increase of complexity of systems.