Robust Methodology for Characterizing System Response to Damage: Approach Based on Partial Order

Authors

Paul J. Tanenbaum
Carlos de la Mora
Piotr Wojciechowski
Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Scott A. Starks, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Alexandr V. Kuzminykh

Publication Date

5-2003

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-03-11a

Published in: Ivan Lirkov, Svetozar Margenov, Jerzy Wasniewski, and Plamen Yalamov (eds.), Large-Scale Scientific Computing, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference LSSC'2003, Sozopol, Bulgaria, June 4-8, 2003, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2004, Vol. 2907, pp. 238-245.

Abstract

To describe the response of engineering complex systems to various damage mechanics, engineers have traditionally use number-valued utilities to describe the results of different possible outcomes, and (number-valued) probabilities (often, subjective probabilities) to describe the relative frequency of different outcomes. This description is based on the assumption that experts can always make a definite preference between two possible outcomes, i.e., that the set of all outcomes is linearly (totally) ordered. In practice, experts often cannot make a choice, their preference is only a partial order.