Most Probable Point System Simulation Method

A procedure is presented for obtaining the reliability of series, parallel, and mixed systems. The method, called Most Probable Point System Simulation (MPPSS) is simple, and numerically-based; however, it is more accurate than current analytically-based bounding methods (e.g., bi-modal) and it is computationally efficient. In addition, the method can be used to obtain system sensitivity factors, that is, the importance of each random variable to the system reliability. The procedure is demonstrated through an example.