A NOTE ON SOLVING A SYSTEM RELIABILITY PROBLEM INVOLVING NONLINEAR CONSTRAINTS

This paper is concerned with maximizing a system reliability function subject to nonlinear constraints. Numerical examples from the literatu re are handled by a general nonlinear programming algorithm, which can deal with the positive-integer variables of this reliability problem without special difficulties. The computational results presented in t his paper suggest that the computer program listed here can be useful as a model for maximizing the system reliability function subject to t he nonlinear constraints used here. In addition, because of the genera l applicability of the nonlinear programming algorithm, other system r eliability functions and nonlinear constraints different from the ones used in this paper can also be accommodated.