Fuzzy availability assessment for a discrete time repairable multi-state series-parallel system

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hu, Linmin^* | Su, Peng

Affiliations: College of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao City, HebeiProvince, China

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Linmin Hu, College of Science, Yanshan University, No. 438 Hebei Avenue, Qinhuangdao City, 066004 Hebei Province, China. E-mail: linminhu@ysu.edu.cn.

Abstract: A discrete time repairable multi-state series-parallel system with fuzzy data is considered. The lifetimes and the repair times of the system components are assumed to be geometrically distributed random variables with fuzzy parameters, and the performance levels of the system components are presented as fuzzy values. Fuzzy set theory is employed to deal with the uncertain problem of the system. A discrete time fuzzy Markov model is proposed to assess the fuzzy state probability of binary component. The fuzzy universal generating function technique is adopted to evaluate fuzzy state probability and fuzzy performance level of the entire system. An availability assessment approach is proposed to compute the dynamic fuzzy availability of the system with the fuzzy consumer demand. Based on the extension principle, the α - cuts of some indices for the system are obtained by using parametric programming technique. Finally, a numerical example is presented.

Keywords: Discrete time, multi-state system, fuzzy availability, fuzzy universal generating function, parametric programming

DOI: 10.3233/IFS-152012

Journal: Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 2663-2675, 2016