System reliability simulation based on minimal cut sets

For a long time, how to analysis the reliability of complex repairable system is a difficult problem in reliability field. The classic method is describing the system status with Markov process. But when using this method, a basic hypothesis should be made. That is the working and maintenance time of every item must follow the index distribution. As a result, it can be used only on some simple systems. Recently, numerical simulation technique has been widely used in engineering field. This technique has become the main method to evaluate the reliability of large complex repairable system. But in practice, general numerical simulation has shown many limitations. The most notable of which is that different simulation logics should be made to suit with different system and then comes the writing of new simulation programs. This makes it quite inconvenient to use the method. Combining the theory of fault tree (FT) and the technique of numerical simulation, this paper discusses the problem of system simulation based on Minimal Cut Set (MCS). This new method eliminates the disadvantages by the traditional method and provides a common method for large complex repairable system reliability analysis.