Modern Dynamic Reliability Analysis for Multi-state Systems: Stochastic Processes and the Lz-Transform

This book discusses recent developments in dynamic reliability in multi-state systems (MSS), addressing such important issues as reliability and availability analysis of aging MSS, the impact of initial conditions on MSS reliability and availability, changing importance of components over time in MSS with aging components, and the determination of age-replacement policies. It also describes modifications of traditional methods, such as Markov processes with rewards, as well as a modern mathematical method based on the extended universal generating function technique, the Lz-transform, presenting various successful applications and demonstrating their use in real-world problems. This book provides theoretical insights, information on practical applications, and real-world case studies that are of interest to engineers and industrial managers as well as researchers. It also serves as a textbook or supporting text for graduate and postgraduate courses in industrial, electrical, and mechanical engineering.