Towards a method for assessing resilience of complex dynamical systems

System survivability is one of the key requirements for the conceptual design of an Integrated Reconfigurable Intelligent (IRIS) system. Current approaches in survivability engineering may not effectively address the challenges in designing revolutionary, large scale complex and multi-capable systems. The main objective of this study is to investigate the concept of resilience in the context of system safety and survivability and suggest a technique for assessing resilience in systems engineering. Resilience is expected to be the enabler for integrating safety and survivability in the early conceptual design. For this purpose, a small scale cooling network system architecture has been utilized to demonstrate the technique, both for a 32-valve baseline, as well as for six other configurations. The application of the technique allowed for the comparative assessment and tradeoff investigation of resilience function capacities, as well for the identification of solution feasibility, under adaptability and robustness constraints.