RELSYS: A computer program for structural system reliability

Most reliability-based analyses focus on the reliability of the individual components of a structure, There are many advantages to examining the compo nents in combination as an entire structural system. This paper illustrates an algorithm used in the computer program RELSYS (RELiability of SYStems) which computes the system reliability of any structure which can be modeled as a series-parallel combination of its components, A first-order method i s used to initially compute the reliability of each individual component. T he system reliability is computed by successively reducing the series and p arallel systems until the system has been simplified to a single equivalent component. Equivalent alpha vectors are used to account for the correlatio n between failure modes during the system reduction process.