Reshaping the science of reliability with the entropy function

Abstract

The present paper revolves around two argument points. As first, we have observed a certain parallel between the reliability of systems and the progressive disorder of thermodynamical systems; and we import the notion of reversibility/irreversibility into the reliability domain. As second, we note that the reliability theory is a very active area of research which although has not yet become a mature discipline. This is due to the majority of researchers who adopt the inductive logic instead of the deductive logic typical of mature scientific sectors. The deductive approach was inaugurated by Gnedenko in the reliability domain. We mean to continue Gnedenko's work and we use the Boltzmann-like entropy to pursue this objective. This paper condenses the papers published in the past decade which illustrate the calculus of the Boltzmann-like entropy. It is demonstrated how the every result complies with the deductive logic and are consistent with Gnedenko's achievements.