Volume 4, Issue 1

Reliability Edge Home

From the Editor's Desk -- Lisa Hacker

This issue of Reliability Edge is once again packed with a mix of articles covering both reliability principles/theory and examples for practical application. We are particularly pleased to be able to provide some "sneak preview" information for two new software products that will be available from ReliaSoft in the next few months: BlockSim FTI and RGA 6.

BlockSim FTI gives classic fault tree analysis (FTA) a boost with flexible and robust modeling and analysis capabilities achieved through integration with BlockSim’s enhanced reliability block diagram (RBD) support. In the Fault Tree Analysis, Reliability Block Diagrams and BlockSim FTI article, we present a comparison between fault tree and RBD techniques for system analysis, including coverage of all major FTA gate and event symbols.

RGA 6 supports the analysis of data from reliability growth tests (both continuous times-to-failure and discrete success/failure results) using all of the major reliability growth analysis models. This includes the Crow (AMSAA) model and variations that can also be used for reliability growth projections and repairable systems analysis. In the Reliability Growth Analysis and Plots article, we present a brief overview of some of RGA’s capabilities and introduce some of the results and plots that can be generated for your reliability growth analyses.

As always, we welcome your feedback on these and other articles and appreciate your ideas for other subjects of interest.