Reliability analysis of a loading dependent system with cascading failures considering overloads

In many production facilities, multiple components have to work together to share the overall workload on the entire system, leading to loading dependence and higher vulnerability to cascading failures. Additionally, overloading of one component can expedite the failures of others, exemplifying another form of loading dependence. In this study, we develop a system reliability analysis model for loading dependent systems considering overloads based on the Multi-state CASCADE model. By incorporating a time variable, the tailor-made model is able to characterize the duration of each generation in the cascading process, along with the cumulative time of the whole cascading process until the system collapse. A combination of analytical and simulation techniques is then employed to investigate how various potential influencing factors of loading dependence and cascading processes influence the system reliability. The results demonstrate that the effectiveness of proposed method in estimating the system reliability of the loading dependent system considering overloads. Such findings can improve the decision-makings of reliability prediction, system design, and maintenance optimization, especially in scenarios involving the loading dependent with cascading failures.