Solve the optimal design problems of system reliability with interval coefficients using partial order relations and genetic algorithm

The inequality constraints with interval coefficients can be transformed into the conventional linear programming constraints via the interval operations and partial order relations. Based on this transformation, a novel method is presented to deal with the nonlinear integer programming problem of system reliability with interval coefficients. To test the efficiency of the present method, we use genetic algorithm to solve an optimal selection and redundant unit allocation problem with 14 subsystems. The numerical results show that the proposed method is the efficient.