Abstract
In the reliability investigation of large systems the problem of the complexity of their reliability functions appears. This problem may be approximately solved by assuming that the numer of the system components tends to infinity and finding the limit reliability function of the system. The solution for two-state series and parallel systems is well known and given for instance in `Statistical theory of reliability and life testing' by Barlow and Prochan. Limit reliability functions of more complex two-state series-parallel and parallel-series systems with identical components are discussed by Kołowrocki (Reliability Engineering and System Safety 1993;41:251–7). The results on limit reliability functions of two-state series-parallel and parallel-series systems with different components are given by Kołowrocki (Reliability Engineering and System Safety 1994;46:179–88). Systems with multistate components are more general and play an important role in the reliability practice, specially in system safety analysis. Therefore in the paper, besides of the classes of limit reliability functions for non-homogeneous two-state systems, the classes of such functions for any large homogeneous multistate series and series-parallel systems are given. Moreover, some applications of the results to the reliability and risk evaluation of pipelines are presented.
Published Version
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