Most books in reliability theory are dealing with a description of component and system states as binary: functioning or failed. However, many systems are composed of multi-state components with different performance levels and several failure modes. There is a great need in a series of applications to have a more refined description of these states, for instance, the amount of power generated by an electrical power generation system or the amount of gas that can be delivered through an offshore gas pipeline network.

This book provides a descriptive account of various types of multistate...