Modeling and analysis of system reliability using phase-type distribution closure properties

Phase-type distribution closure properties are utilized to devise algorithms for generating reliability functions of systems with basic structures. These structures include series, parallel, K-out-of-N, and standby structures with perfect/imperfect switch. The algorithms form a method for system reliability modeling and analysis based on the relationship between the system lifetime and component lifetimes for general structures. The proposed method is suitable for functional system reliability analysis, which can produce reliability functions of systems with independent components instead of only system reliability values. Once the system reliability function is obtained, other reliability measures such as the system's hazard function and mean time to failure can be obtained efficiently using only matrix algebra. Dimensional and numerical comparisons with computerized symbolic processing are also presented to show the superiority of the proposed method.