ABSTRACT
In the reliability analysis it is very important to consider the system as a whole. Failure of a component may cause hazards to some other components, and even it may or may not lead directly to failure of the system. Some methods are specially intended to deal with those system effects. Finally reliability methods can also be categorized as being time-independent and time-dependent. Most reliability methods are developed for time-independent system. In many cases, reliability aspects are time dependent due to continuous degradation of resistance of the structure through corrosion, fatigue, etc. or due to fluctuating loads in time. Time-independent reliability methods receive considerable attention in practice since they are also encountered in more realistic time-variant reliability analyses and in some cases time-dependent failure modes are transferred into a corresponding time-independent mode.
