Title: Risk-based reliability allocation and topological optimisation based on minimising the total cost

Authors: M.T. Todinov

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley Campus, Wheatley, Oxford OX33 1HX, UK

Abstract: A new method for optimisation of the topology of engineering systems is proposed, based on reliability allocation by minimising the total cost – the sum of the cost for building the system and the risk of failure. The essence of the proposed method can be summarised in three steps: developing a system topology with the maximum possible reliability; reducing the resultant system to a system with generic components, for each of which several alternatives exist; and a third step that involves reliability allocation minimising the total cost. A heuristic optimisation algorithm and an exact recursive algorithm are also proposed. Central to the proposed methods is an efficient algorithm for determining the probability of system failure. The proposed algorithms are generic and applicable to any engineering system. They are very efficient for topologically complex reliability networks containing a large number of nodes.

Keywords: reliability allocation; system reliability analysis; algorithms; total cost; risk limitation; topological optimisation; failure losses; adjacency arrays; reliability networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRS.2007.016261

International Journal of Reliability and Safety, 2007 Vol.1 No.4, pp.489 - 512

Published online: 13 Dec 2007 *

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