Multi-State Reliability Assessment Method Based on the MDD-GO Model

The GO methodology is an important technique for reliability assessment and evaluation of complex systems, especially for systematic timing and dynamic characteristics. However, the treatment of the shared signal and multi-state issues has increased the calculation burden in GO mode. Multi-valued decision diagrams (MDDs) have the merit of effectively performing qualitative and quantitative analysis via Boolean function forms directly; hence, in this paper, we propose a novel efficient algorithm for the multi-state GO model based on MDD, which combines the advantages of the two techniques. Moreover, the algorithm avoids the complex separate process of handling shared signals in the probability formulas method and the problem of complicated calculation in the state compounding method. In addition, the path and cut sets of the system are obtained through qualitative calculation based on the new algorithm. Finally, the correctness, simplicity, and accuracy of the new algorithm for analyzing systems that contain shared signals are verified by a case study.