Joint Optimization of Redundancy and Component-Reliabilities in a Series System

Abstract

Systems reliability can be improved by using redundancy and/or developing more reliable components. This paper considers a joint optimization of both alternatives for a series system. It is shown that the n-stage optimization problem can be decomposed into n single stage subproblems. Each subproblem is further transformed into a univariate optimization problem for which a simple and efficient solution method is developed.