Reliability stochastic optimization for an n-stage series system with m chance constraints : research letter

Abstract

This paper addresses the chance constraints reliability stochastic optimization (CCRSO) problem, for which the objective is to maximize system reliability for the given chance constraints. A method is illustrated to determine optimal solutions to an n-stage series system with m chance constraints of the redundancy allocation problem, incorporating the concepts of chance constraints techniques. One can quickly reach an exact real number solution closest to the optimal solution by this means. Once the real number solution is obtained, the branch-and-bound (B&B) technique is used to obtain the integer solution. We illustrate this approach for a 4-stage series system with two chance constraints.