System Reliability: Concepts and Applications

Technical systems are producible: one can at least make them work at the time of first use. A higher order requirement is that they remain serviceable throughout their expected useful life; i.e. that they are reliable. The consequences of unreliable functioning of these systems may vary from inconvenience, extra costs, environmental damage, to even death. The inability to perform reliably may not only arise from the product itself, but also from human errors. The aim of this textbook is to familiarise the reader with the principles and terminology of reliability engineering: * Methods for improving reliability are discussed in detail; * The approaches of deterministic and statistical reliability engineering are explained in such a way that the practical implications of the equations are clear; * The book discusses methods of handling the reliability of large and complex systems; * A chapter is devoted to software reliability; * The book contains a large set of exercises and solutions.