Bayesian modeling of multi-state hierarchical systems with multi-level information aggregation

Reliability modeling of multi-state hierarchical systems is challenging because of the complex system structures and imbalanced reliability information available at different system levels. This paper proposes a Bayesian multi-level information aggregation approach to model the reliability of multi-level hierarchical systems by utilizing all available reliability information throughout the system. Cascading failure dependency among components and/or sub-systems at the same level is explicitly considered. The proposed methodology can significantly improve the accuracy of system-level reliability modeling. A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.