only for those systems which are already in use (and considerable field data is available) or a number of tests on prototypes have generated sufficient data. However, reliability at the preliminary and detailed design stages cannot be evaluated by black-box approach. Reliability evaluation and assurance at design stages are essential for design improvement. and subsequent approval and therefore the only method for doing this is the RLD approach. Series, parallel, series-parallel, non-series-parallel, k-out-of-m, and networks are some of the generally used reliability logic diagrams. Well-formulated methods are available to study these configurations for reliability evaluation of systems. These are discussed in detail in the next section. 1.10.1 System Reliability Models ‘A system is defined as an arrangement of a number of its constituent components in some specific manner so that it converts certain easily available inputs into the required output. Some systems are simple, consisting of only a few components; some others are complex, consisting of a large number of components with many interconnections. The main concem of a systems engineer is to estimate various reliability parameters of the systems he is dealing with. The general approach for analyzing such systems is to decompose them into subsystems of convenient size, and then into components. This can be done in a number of stages. Components are at the lowest hierarchical level and the system is at the highest. Reliability parameters of the components. are evaluated as discussed in the previous section. Reliabilities of subsystems. are then estimated using the well-known probability laws. Based on the functional relationship (RLD) between the components, appropriate probability Jaws must be used for this. This procedure is then repeated to evaluate the reliability parameters of the next higher level of the system hierarchy. In this way, in a number of steps we can evaluate the system reliability. A complete knowledge of the physical structure of the system and the nature of its functional relationships is required to carry out such modelling. This section discusses various system reliability models for certain well- known RLDs, such as series, parallel, stand-by, k-out-of-m, non-series parallel, and networks. All models assume that the components fail independently of each other, i.e. the failure of one component does not affect the failure or success of other components. 1.10.1.1 Series systems Let us consider a system having a total of ‘n’ components. After a careful analysis of the physical diagram and the functional relationships, we have to draw the RLD. If the RLD looks like a diagram as shown in Figure 1.5, we conclude that it is a series system, The important property of the series system is that for achieving successful operation of this system, all its ‘n?