Complex systems have become ubiquitous and are essential to today's society. The design of reliable complex systems and the determination of their availability are therefore very important tasks for managers and engineers. These tasks, however, can be extremely difficult to achieve, due to the fact that current analytical methods are often too complicated, time-consuming, inefficient, or even inappropriate, when dealing with real-life systems.

Simulation Methods for Reliability and Availability of Complex Systems discusses the use of computer simulation-based techniques and algorithms to determine reliability and availability (R&A) levels in complex systems, and to support the improvement of these levels both at the design stage and during the system operating stage. It presents current best practice in the field, as well as:

. sharing theoretical or applied models and decision support systems that make use of simulation to estimate and to improve system R&A levels;

. forecasting emerging technologies and trends in the use of computer simulation for R&A; and

. proposing hybrid approaches to the development of efficient methodologies designed to solve R&A-related problems in real-life systems.

Dealing with practical issues, Simulation Methods for Reliability and Availability of Complex Systems is designed to support managers and system engineers in the improvement of R&A, as well as providing a thorough exploration of the techniques and algorithms available for researchers, and for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Springer Series in Reliability Engineering publishes high-quality books in important areas of current theoretical research and development in reliability, and in areas that bridge the gap between theory and application in areas of interest to practitioners in industry, laboratories, business, and government.

Autorentext

Javier Faulin is associate professor of statistics and operations research at the Public University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain. He is also a mentor and professor of operations research for the Spanish Open University (UNED), Madrid, Spain.

Dr Faulin has been a visiting professor at the University of Sabana, Bogotá, Colombia, and the University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada, and a visiting scholar at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, and University College of Business, Dublin, Ireland. He also spent three years at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, as associate lecturer in decision making in business, and in 2007 and 2008 was a professeur invité at the Université de Rennes, Rennes, France.

Angel A. Juan is an associate professor of simulation and data analysis at the Open University of Catalonia. He is also a lecturer of statistics at the Technical University of Catalonia.

Dr Juan has also been a teacher of mathematics and statistics at Elian's Boston School, Boston, USA; an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain; a teacher of mathematics and computer science for the Catalan government's Department of Education; assistant professor of applied statistics, simulation of computer networks and mathematics at the Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain; and a teacher of programming languages, computer networks and database management systems for the Catalan government's Department of Education.

Sebastián Martorell is associate professor in nuclear engineering and director of the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, from which he also received his MSc and PhD.

Dr Martorell is vice-chairman of the European Safety and Reliability Association (ESRA). He is also a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Industrial Engineering.

Jose Emmanuel Ramirez-Marquez is assistantprofessor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, USA. He is also director of the Quality Control and Reliability Engineering Division Board for the Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Prior to receiving his PhD in 2004, Dr Ramirez-Marquez was an area officer for the Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico Servicio de Administracion Tributaria, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico, and a graduate assistant at Rutgers, New Brunswick, USA.

Zusammenfassung

Simulation Methods for Reliability and Availability of Complex Systems discusses the use of computer simulation-based techniques and algorithms to determine reliability and availability (R and A) levels in complex systems. The book: shares theoretical or applied models and decision support systems that make use of simulation to estimate and to improve system R and A levels, forecasts emerging technologies and trends in the use of computer simulation for R and A and proposes hybrid approaches to the development of efficient methodologies designed to solve R and A-related problems in real-life systems.

Dealing with practical issues, Simulation Methods for Reliability and Availability of Complex Systems is designed to support managers and system engineers in the improvement of R and A, as well as providing a thorough exploration of the techniques and algorithms available for researchers, and for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Inhalt
Fundamentals of Simulation in Reliability and Availability Issues.- Reliability Estimation by Advanced Monte Carlo Simulation.- Dynamic Fault Tree Analysis: Simulation Approach.- Analysis and Improvements of Path-based Methods for Monte Carlo Reliability Evaluation of Static Models.- Variate Generation in Reliability.- Simulation Applications in Reliability.- Simulation-based Methods for Studying Reliability and Preventive Maintenance of Public Infrastructure.- Reliability Models for Data Integration Systems.- Power Distribution System Reliability Evaluation Using Both Analytical Reliability Network Equivalent Technique and Time-sequential Simulation Approach.- Application of Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability Simulation to Process Industries: a Case Study.- Potential Applications of Discrete-event Simulation and Fuzzy Rule-based Systems to Structural Reliability and Availability.- Simulation Applications in Availability and Maintenance.- Maintenance Manpower Modeling: A Tool for Human Systems Integration Practitioners to Estimate Manpower, Personnel, and Training Requirements.- Application of Monte Carlo Simulation for the Estimation of Production Availability in Offshore Installations.- Simulation of Maintained Multicomponent Systems for Dependability Assessment.- Availability Estimation via Simulation for Optical Wireless Communication.