Reliability Modeling & Evaluation for Networks under Multiple & Fluctuating Operational Conditions

A simple multistate Markov process models a component and a system of any configuration under several operational conditions. Based on it, a simple tie-set approach calculates availability and frequencies-of-system-failure during different conditions; a cut-set approach calculates probabilities and frequencies of system-failure during various conditions. There are two interpretations of operational conditions: 1) environment such as weather or stress, and 2) operating conditions such as occur in several sequential or fluctuating phases. As the system is assumed at any moment under a condition with a certain probability or weight, some relative reliability measures can be further obtained simply to identify which conditions are disastrous.