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- All Subjects: Product Design
- All Subjects: Reliability (Engineering)
- Creators: Pan, Rong
- Creators: Boradkar, Prasad
In this paper, a literature review is presented on the application of Bayesian networks applied in system reliability analysis. It is shown that Bayesian networks have become a popular modeling framework for system reliability analysis due to the benefits that Bayesian networks have the capability and flexibility to model complex systems, update the probability according to evidences and give a straightforward and compact graphical representation. Research on approaches for Bayesian network learning and inference are summarized. Two groups of models with multistate nodes were developed for scenarios from constant to continuous time to apply and contrast Bayesian networks with classical fault tree method. The expanded model discretized the continuous variables and provided failure related probability distribution over time.
The reliability structure uncertainty cannot be handled by the traditional relia- bility analysis tools such as Fault Tree and Reliability Block Diagram due to their deterministic Boolean logic. Therefore, I employ Bayesian network that provides a flexible modeling method for building a multivariate distribution. By representing a system reliability structure as a joint distribution, the uncertainty and correlations existing between system’s elements can effectively be modeled in a probabilistic man- ner. This dissertation focuses on analyzing system reliability for the entire system life cycle, particularly, production stage and early design stages.
In production stage, the research investigates a system that is continuously mon- itored by on-board sensors. With modeling the complex reliability structure by Bayesian network integrated with various stochastic processes, I propose several methodologies that evaluate system reliability on real-time basis and optimize main- tenance schedules.
In early design stages, the research aims to predict system reliability based on the current system design and to improve the design if necessary. The three main challenges in this research are: 1) the lack of field failure data, 2) the complex reliability structure and 3) how to effectively improve the design. To tackle the difficulties, I present several modeling approaches using Bayesian inference and nonparametric Bayesian network where the system is explicitly analyzed through the sensitivity analysis. In addition, this modeling approach is enhanced by incorporating a temporal dimension. However, the nonparametric Bayesian network approach generally accompanies with high computational efforts, especially, when a complex and large system is modeled. To alleviate this computational burden, I also suggest to building a surrogate model with quantile regression.
In summary, this dissertation studies and explores the use of Bayesian network in analyzing complex systems. All proposed methodologies are demonstrated by case studies.
This thesis asks, "Can game design build better product learning experiences, and if so, how?" It examines the learning situations created by and necessary for product design. It examines the principles of game learning. Then it looks for opportunities to apply game learning principles to product learning situations. The goal is to create engaging and successful product learning experiences, without turning products into games.
This study uses an auto-ethnographic evaluation of a gameplay session as well as participant observation and interviews with gamers to gather qualitative data. That data is sorted with an A(x4) framework and used to create user experience profiles.
The final outcome is a toolkit that identifies areas where game design could improve the design of product user experiences, especially for product learning.
In order to design these systems, the Reliability-Based Design Optimization framework using Sequential Optimization and Reliability Assessment (SORA) method is developed. The dynamic nature of component failure probability is considered in the system reliability model. The Stress-Strength Interference (SSI) theory is used to build the limit state functions of components and the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) lies at the heart of reliability assessment. Also, in situations where the user needs to determine the optimum number of components and reduce component redundancy, this method can be used to optimally allocate the required number of components to carry the system load. The main advantage of this method is that the computational efficiency is high and also any optimization and reliability assessment technique can be incorporated. Different cases of numerical examples are provided to validate the methodology.
Bayesian networks generalize fault trees by allowing components and subsystems to be related by conditional probabilities instead of deterministic relationships; thus, they provide analytical advantages to the situation when the failure structure is not well understood, especially during the product design stage. In order to tackle this problem, one needs to utilize auxiliary information such as the reliability information from similar products and domain expertise. For this purpose, a Bayesian network approach is proposed to incorporate data from functional analysis and parent products. The functions with low reliability and their impact on other functions in the network are identified, so that design changes can be suggested for system reliability improvement.
A complex system does not necessarily have all components being monitored at the same time, causing another challenge in the reliability assessment problem. Sometimes there are a limited number of sensors deployed in the system to monitor the states of some components or subsystems, but not all of them. Data simultaneously collected from multiple sensors on the same system are analyzed using a Bayesian network approach, and the conditional probabilities of the network are estimated by combining failure information and expert opinions at both system and component levels. Several data scenarios with discrete, continuous and hybrid data (both discrete and continuous data) are analyzed. Posterior distributions of the reliability parameters of the system and components are assessed using simultaneous data.
Finally, a Bayesian framework is proposed to incorporate different sources of prior information and reconcile these different sources, including expert opinions and component information, in order to form a prior distribution for the system. Incorporating expert opinion in the form of pseudo-observations substantially simplifies statistical modeling, as opposed to the pooling techniques and supra Bayesian methods used for combining prior distributions in the literature.
The methods proposed are demonstrated with several case studies.