ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the major concepts that underpinned the emergence and dynamic development of Reliability Engineering as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. Physical aspects of reliability are also discussed, as being particularly relevant to the engineering approach, and neglected in most works on Reliability Engineering. The mathematical basis for the evaluation of the reliability of elements and entire systems was presented, both based on mathematical statistics and on the theory of probability. Models of selected discrete probability distributions as well as continuous probability distributions were presented, and the calculation formulas necessary to determine the parameters of these distributions are summarized. Selected examples of metrics for reliability attributes have been proposed and illustrated with examples. The section on structural reliability discusses the Reliability Block Diagram method and its application to assess the reliability of systems with different functional structures. The computational models for selected redundant structures were presented, namely so-called (k, n) systems as well as with hot, warm, and cold reserve. The conclusion presents the limitations of the application of these theoretical models in real operating conditions.
