Operational reliability assessment of complex mechanical systems with multiple failure modes: An adaptive decomposition-synchronous-coordination approach

To effectively perform Complex Mechanical Systems Operational Reliability Assessment (CSORA) with multiple failures, the Adaptive Decomposition-Synchronous-Coordination Approach (ADSCA) is proposed by integrating Decomposition-Synchronous-Coordination strategy, adaptive modeling technology, surrogate model and multi-objective reliability assessment theory. In which, the main problem is decomposed into related sub-problems using a Decomposition-Synchronization-Coordination strategy, with sub-models coordinated to achieve synchronous mapping between multiple variables, thereby enhancing efficiency in large multi-subsystem problems. The adaptive modeling technique is adopted to construct a series of interrelated sub models based on the surrogate model as the basis function, improving performance. A multi-objective reliability assessment theory is adopted to achieve CSORA under multiple fault modes, where multiple weak links are integrated to comprehensively evaluate the reliability of complex systems. The significance of the ADSCA lies in its ability to manage complexity, enhance scalability, and improve the accuracy and efficiency of reliability assessments in complex mechanical systems. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, two illustrative examples are used. This includes approximation and probability analysis of nonlinear functions that exhibit multiple responses, as well as reliability analysis of temperature in civil aircraft braking system. The study can provide theoretical reference for the reliability evaluation of multi-failure operation in complex mechanical systems.