A procedure for determining the reliability characteristics of a system undergoing a phased mission

New and practical methods for reliability analyses of systems designed to carry out phased missions are presented. These methods calculate the expected number of failures, reliability and availability for the system and component failures of interest. Methods for importance calculations for the component failures are also given. An analysis of the Emergency Core Cooling System of a typical Pressurized Water Reactor during a loss of coolant accident as the sample demonstrates the applicability of these techniques to industrial problems.