A new fractal based reliability model

Abstract

Reliability model is the basis for reliability assessment, prediction and optimization. Previous models always describe system reliability based on the state of each component and their relationships, which will bring high computational effort and are not feasible for large and complex systems. In this paper, a new reliability model is proposed for all-terminal reliability assessment. It is built based on fractal theory and described in the way of iteration with fractal unit and some parameter. The model is applied to a typical fractal network-Koch network, which makes the modeling process based on the fractal unit, and then will bring a simplification for reliability model. The idea in this model can be extended to analyze the reliability in complex systems with extended or self-similar features. Moreover, many cases are studied and the results show that all-terminal reliability is reduced rapidly with the increase of Koch network size.