On sensitivity analysis of aging multi-state system by using Lz-transform

The paper considers a sensitivity evaluation for an aging multi-state system (MSS) under minimal repair. Investigation of an impact of changing different failure/repair rates of different elements in MSS is important for practical reliability engineering. In practical reliability engineering a "curse of dimensionality" (the large number of states that should be analyzed for a multi-state system model) is a main obstacle for sensitivity assessment. Straightforward Markov Method applied to solve this problem requires building a model with numerous numbers of states and solving a corresponding system of differential equations. In order to solve this problem, the paper proposes to use a new method based on an L-z-transform of the discrete-state continuous time Markov process, and on Ushakov's Universal Generating Operator. New sensitivity measures useful for aging MSS reliability analysis were introduced. It was shown that the proposed method drastically reduces a computational burden. A numerical example is presented in order to illustrate the approach.