Interoperability between a dynamic reliability modeling and a Systems Engineering process – Principles and Case Study

Industrial systems are often large, and complex, in terms of structure, dynamic interactions between subsystems and components, dynamic operational environment, ageing, etc. The dynamic reliability approach is a convenient framework to model the behavior of such systems. However, there is a price to pay, e.g. in terms of amount of data, size of state graphs, volume of reliability calculations, and combination of various engineering activities. A sound Systems Engineering process, benefiting from the improvement of most recent tools, may be a fruitful approach to decrease these difficulties. Although feasibility demonstrations have been done for conventional, static, approaches of dependability, interoperability between dynamic reliability modeling and Systems Engineering has not the same maturity level. The article explains how, on the basis of Systems Engineering (SE) process definitions, a Meta-model defines a framework for integrating the safety into SE processes. It supports a "hub automaton", that is the key element for interoperability with the tools and activities required for a dynamic reliability assessment. The case study is the dynamic assessment of availability of a feed-water control system in a power plant steam generator, presented in previous articles.