Improvement of equivalent component approach for reliability analyses of series systems

摘要: Abstract The present study proposes an improved equivalent component approach to evaluate the system reliability of series systems. An analytical expression is derived unit normal vector, in context first-order method, associated with component. This improves computational efficiency for determining correlation coefficients between and components approach. adaptive combining process also proposed, whereby two highest coefficient are combined at each step. accuracy demonstrated systems equally unequally correlated components. Finally, illustrated through analysis a pressurized steel pipeline segment containing ten active corrosion defects.