A connected-(r,s)-out-of-(m,n): F system is a kind of the connected-X-out-of-(m,n): F system defined by Boehme et al. [2]. A connected-(r,s)-out-of-(m,n): F system consists of m×n components arranged in (m,n)-matrix. This system fails if and only if there exists a grid of size r×s in which all components are failed. When m=r, this system can be regarded as a consecutive-s-out-of-n: F system, and then the optimal arrangement of this system satisfies theorem which stated by Malon [9] in the case of s=2. In this study, we proposed a new algorithm for obtaining optimal arrangement of the connected-(r,2)-out-of-(m,n): F system based on the above mentioned idea. We performed numerical experiments in order to compare the proposed algorithm with the algorithm of enumeration method, and calculated the order of the computation time of these two algorithms. The numerical experiments showed that the proposed algorithm was more efficiently than the algorithm of enumeration method.

An optimal arrangement problem involves finding a component arrangement to maximize system reliability, namely, the optimal arrangement. It is useful to obtain the optimal arrangement when we design a practical system. An existing study developed an algorithm for finding the optimal arrangement of a connected-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n): F lattice system with r=m-1 and n<2s. However, the algorithm is time-consuming to find the optimal arrangement of a system having many components. In this study, we develop an algorithm for efficiently finding the optimal arrangement of the system with r=m-1 and s=n-1 based on the depth-first branch-and-bound method. In the algorithm, before enumerating arrangements, we assign some components without computing the system reliability. As a result, we can find the optimal arrangement effectively because the number of components which must be assigned decreases. Furthermore, we develop an efficient method for computing the system reliability. The numerical experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.

Using a matrix approach based on a Markov process, we investigate the reliability of a circular connected-(1,2)-or-(2,1)-out-of-(m,n):F lattice system for the i.i.d. case. We develop a modified linear lattice system that is equivalent to this circular system, and propose a methodology that allows the systematic calculation of the reliability. It is based on ideas presented by Fu and Hu [6]. A partial transition probability matrix is used to reduce the computational complexity of the calculations, and closed formulas are derived for special cases.

A 2-dimensional cylindrical k-within-consecutive-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n):F system consists of m n components arranged on a cylindrical grid. Each of m circles has n components, and this system fails if and only if there exists a grid of size r s within which at least k components are failed. This system may be used into reliability models of "Feelers for measuring temperature on reaction chamber," "TFT Liquid Crystal Display system with 360 degree wide area" and others. In this paper, first, we propose an efficient algorithm for the reliability of a 2-dimensional cylindrical k-within-consecutive-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n):F system. The feature of this algorithm is calculating their system reliabilities with shorter computing time and smaller memory size than Akiba and Yamamoto. Next, we show some numerical examples so that our proposed algorithm is more effective than Akiba and Yamamoto for systems with large n.

In this paper, first, we propose a new recursive algorithm for evaluating generalized multi-state k-out-of-n:F systems. This recursive algorithm can be applied to the systems even though the states of all components in the system are assumed to be non-i.i.d. random variables. Our algorithm is useful for any multi-state k-out-of-n:F system, including the decreasing, increasing and constant multi-state k-out-of-n:F system. Furthermore, our algorithm can evaluate the state distributions of the other non-monotonic multi-state k-out-of-n:F systems. Next, we calculate the order of computing time and memory capacity of the proposed algorithm. We perform numerical experiments in the non-i.i.d. case. The results show that the proposed algorithm is efficient for evaluating the system state distribution of multi-state k-out-of-n:F system when n is large and kl are small.