Reliability of Engineered Systems

Abstract

Making decisions about the design and operation of infrastructure requires estimating the future performance of systems, which implies evaluating the system’s ability to perform as expected during a predefined time window. This evaluation fits within what is known as reliability analysis. This chapter presents an introduction to the basic concepts and the theory of reliability in engineering, which provides the foundation for constructing degradation models (see Chaps. 4–7), performing life-cycle cost analyses (see Chaps. 8 and 9), and to designing maintenance strategies (Chap. 10). In the first part of this chapter, we present some conceptual issues about reliability and a description of basic reliability approaches. The second part of the chapter, Sect. 2.7 and onward, presents an overview of reliability models and sets the basis for theory that will be used and discussed in the rest of the book.