Accelerated Monte Carlo system reliability analysis through machine-learning-based surrogate models of network connectivity

The two-terminal reliability problem in system reliability analysis is known to be computationally intractable for large infrastructure graphs. Monte Carlo techniques can estimate the probability of a disconnection between two points in a network by selecting a representative sample of network component failure realizations and determining the source-terminal connectivity of each realization. To reduce the runtime required for the Monte Carlo approximation, this article proposes an approximate framework in which the connectivity check of each sample is estimated using a machine-learning-based classifier. The framework is implemented using both a support vector machine (SVM) and a logistic regression based surrogate model. Numerical experiments are performed on the California gas distribution network using the epicenter and magnitude of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake as well as randomly-generated earthquakes. It is shown that the SVM and logistic regression surrogate models are able to predict network connectivity with accuracies of 99% for both methods, and are 1–2 orders of magnitude faster than using a Monte Carlo method with an exact connectivity check.