Simulation Methods for Reliability and Availability of Complex Systems

Javier Faulin is associate professor of statistics and operations research at the Public University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain. He is also a mentor and professor of operations research for the Spanish Open University (UNED), Madrid, Spain. Dr Faulin has been a visiting professor at the University of Sabana, Bogota, Colombia, and the University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada, and a visiting scholar at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, and University College of Business, Dublin, Ireland. He also spent three years at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, as associate lecturer in decision making in business, and in 2007 and 2008 was a professeur invite at the Universite de Rennes, Rennes, France. Angel A. Juan is an associate professor of simulation and data analysis at the Open University of Catalonia. He is also a lecturer of statistics at the Technical University of Catalonia. Dr Juan has also been a teacher of mathematics and statistics at Elian's Boston School, Boston, USA; an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain; a teacher of mathematics and computer science for the Catalan government's Department of Education; assistant professor of applied statistics, simulation of computer networks and mathematics at the Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain; and a teacher of programming languages, computer networks and database management systems for the Catalan government's Department of Education. Sebastian Martorell is associate professor in nuclear engineering and director of the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, from which he also received his MSc and PhD. Dr Martorell is vice-chairman of the European Safety and Reliability Association (ESRA). He is also a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Industrial Engineering. Jose Emmanuel Ramirez-Marquez is assistant professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, USA. He is also director of the Quality Control and Reliability Engineering Division Board for the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Prior to receiving his PhD in 2004, Dr Ramirez-Marquez was an area officer for the Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico Servicio de Administracion Tributaria, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico, and a graduate assistant at Rutgers, New Brunswick, USA.

• Fundamentals of Simulation in Reliability and Availability Issues.- Reliability Estimation by Advanced Monte Carlo Simulation.- Dynamic Fault Tree Analysis: Simulation Approach.- Analysis and Improvements of Path-based Methods for Monte Carlo Reliability Evaluation of Static Models.- Variate Generation in Reliability.- Simulation Applications in Reliability.- Simulation-based Methods for Studying Reliability and Preventive Maintenance of Public Infrastructure.- Reliability Models for Data Integration Systems.- Power Distribution System Reliability Evaluation Using Both Analytical Reliability Network Equivalent Technique and Time-sequential Simulation Approach.- Application of Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability Simulation to Process Industries: a Case Study.- Potential Applications of Discrete-event Simulation and Fuzzy Rule-based Systems to Structural Reliability and Availability.- Simulation Applications in Availability and Maintenance.- Maintenance Manpower Modeling: A Tool for Human Systems Integration Practitioners to Estimate Manpower, Personnel, and Training Requirements.- Application of Monte Carlo Simulation for the Estimation of Production Availability in Offshore Installations.- Simulation of Maintained Multicomponent Systems for Dependability Assessment.- Availability Estimation via Simulation for Optical Wireless Communication.

The book does an excellent job in presenting theoretical and applied models that use simulation to estimate and improve system reliability and availability levels... Although a significant amount of literature exists on separate topics of simulation, reliability, availability, and maintenance, this book is one of the few that combine these topics in a coherent and constructive manner. Overall, the book provides a well-balanced mix of theory and application, written by a strong contingent of recognized experts from both industry and academia, and written for a diverse audience of practitioners and researchers. Scott E. Grasman, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA (Interfaces 41(1)) This book is an excellent resource that covers an extensive and diverse range of materials on applying simulation for reliability, availability and maintainability study of complex systems. From basic theory on generating random variables to advanced topics on simulation sampling for rare events; from quality issues on data integration to safety problems on nuclear power plants; this book presents a wide spectrum of knowledge on simulation methods and applications. We are sure readers will benefit from this book. Huairui Guo and Arai Monteforte, ReliaSoft Inc., USA (International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management 4(2))