A Formally Verified Algebraic Approach for Dynamic Reliability Block Diagrams

Abstract

Dynamic reliability block diagrams (DRBDs) are introduced to overcome the modeling limitations of traditional reliability block diagrams, such as the inability to capture redundant components. However, so far there is no algebraic framework that allows conducting the analysis of a given DRBD based on its structure function. In this paper, we propose a new algebra to formally express the structure function and the reliability of a DRBD with spare constructs based on basic system blocks and newly introduced DRBD operators. We present several simplification properties that allow reducing the structure of a given DRBD. We formalize the proposed algebra in higher-order logic to ensure its soundness, and formally verify its corresponding properties using the HOL4 theorem prover. This includes formally verifying generic reliability expressions of the spare costruct, series, parallel and deeper structures in an extensible manner that allows verifying the reliability of complex systems. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of this algebra by formally analyzing the reliability of two real-world systems in HOL4.