Dynamic reliability networks with self-healing units

This paper presents an analytical approach for dynamic reliability networks used for the failure limit strategy in maintenance optimization. The proposed approach utilizes the moment generating function (MGF) and the flow-graph concept to depict the functional and reliability diagrams of the system comprised of series, parallel or mix configuration of self-healing units. The self-healing unit is featured by the embedded failure detection and recovery mechanisms presented by self-loop in flow-graph networks. The newly developed analytical approach provides the probability of the system failure and time-to-failure data i.e., mean and standard deviation time-to-failure used for maintenance optimization.