Reliability analysis of phased missions.

Abstract : In a phased mission the relevant system configuration (block diagram or fault tree) changes during consecutive time periods (phases). Many systems are required to perform phased missions. A classic example is a space vehicle. A reliability analysis for a phased mission encounters complexities not present with just one phase, but can be transformed into an analysis of a synthetic single phase case. The transformation has a potential for direct application, or can be used to study various computational algorithms and approximations.