Multiple-Valued Logic mathematical approaches for multi-state system reliability analysis

A mathematical description of an examined system such as Multi-State System (MSS) permits the system reliability to be analyzed in more detail, because the MSS defines some performance levels (more than only working and failure). The structure function is one of the basic definitions and representations of MSS. But the dimension of the structure function increases critically depending on the number of system components. Therefore, the development of methods for examination and quantification of such a function is an actual problem in MSS reliability analysis. In this paper, a method for the analysis of the MSS structure function of high dimension is proposed. The principal point of this method is the interpretation of the MSS structure function as a Multiple-Valued Logic function. It allows effective and approved mathematical methods of Multiple-Valued Logic to be used for analysis and quantification of the MSS structure function. We propose to use two mathematical approaches of Multiple-Valued Logic for the MSS. One of them is a representation of the MSS structure function by a Multiple-Valued Decision Diagram. It is an effective approach for analysis and estimation of the function of high dimension in Multiple-Valued Logic. The other approach is Logic Differential Calculus. Logic Differential Calculus is a useful approach for analysis of the MSS state changes.