ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the reliability of individual components affects the reliability of the entire system and examines time dependence on reliability. The structure function is simply determined through max and min or sums and products of the indicator functions. The structure function of a coherent system may be quite difficult to describe in simple terms. However, the result indicates that the structure function of any coherent system is bounded above by the structure functions of parallel systems. According to Barlow and Proschan, lack of independence between components, or groupings of components, can occur when components are subjected to the same set of stresses, share load, or are common to more than one set of paths or cuts. The probability that a component is operating is easily determined from the indicator function representing the state of the component. The chapter examines series and parallel component failure when the components are operating independently.
