Reliability Modeling Using Finite Degradation Structures

In this article, we introduce the notion of finite degradation structure (FDS). FDSs are semi-lattices equipped with probability structures. We show how FDS can be used to represent multistate units and multistate hierarchical systems. We show also how qualitative analyses (e.g. calculation of minimal cutsets) and quantitative (e.g. calculation of probabilistic indicators) analyses can be performed from these finite degradation models. We give finally various examples that illustrate the proposed modeling technique.