A note on A simple approach to search for all d-MCs of a limited-flow network

Many real-world systems are multi-state systems composed of multi-state components in which the reliability can be computed in terms of the lower bound points of level d, called d-Mincuts (d-MCs). Such systems (electric power, transportation, etc.) may be considered as network flows whose arcs have independent and discrete random capacities. In this comment, we investigate the algorithm proposed by Yeh [A simple approach to search for all d-MCs of a limited-flow network. Reliability Engineering and System Safety 2001;71(1):15-19]. We show that the algorithm misses some real d-MCs, and then pinpoint the algorithm's failure and suggest the correcting point. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.