Evaluation of reliability of complex systems by means of a discretizing approach : Weibull set‐up

This paper examines the suitability of the discretizing approach of Roy and Dasgupta, based on the discrete concentration method of Roy, for determination of reliability of complex systems under Weibull set‐up. A system is said to be complex if its distribution is intractable and analytical evaluation of probability is not available. Numerical analyses on a hollow cylinder, solid shaft, hollow rectangular tube, and the power dissipated by a resistor have been worked out to examine the closeness between the discretized reliability estimators and the simulated values based on Monte Carlo method. Also, it may be observed that the proposed approach has superior performance in comparison to the discretizing approach of English et al. , based on the moment equalization method of Taguchi. The mean absolute deviation under the discrete concentration approach is much less than the same under the moment equalization approach for the Weibull set‐up.