Optimization Limits in Improving System Reliability

A computationally simple approach for reliability-redundancy optimization problems is proposed. Then it is compared by using a simulation study with the other two existing approaches: 1) LMBB which incorporates a) the Lagrange Multiplier technique in conjunction with the Kuhn-Tucker condition and b) the branch-and-bound method and the 2) sequential search techniques in combination with heuristic redundancy allocation methods) and with an extension of combinations of four heuristics and two search techniques. Sections 3–4 describe generally a proposed algorithm and combinations of four heuristics and two search techniques. Sections 5–8 compare the proposed approach, the LMBB approach, and the search techniques in combination with heuristic approaches. Using 100 sets of randomly-generated test-problems with nonlinear constraints for both series systems and a complex system, we measured and evaluated the performances of these approaches in terms of optimality rate, error rate, and execution time. © 1990, IEEE.