Stochastic behaviour of a two-unit cold standby redundant electronic equipment under human failure

This paper presents a mathematical model to evaluate availability and M.T.T.F. of a two-unit cold standby system with three possible states of each unit; viz. good, partially failed and failed, incorporating the concept of human failure. The model has been developed for exponential failures and general repairs. Single service facility is available in each state during the operational stage of the electronic equipment. Laplace transforms of the various state probabilities have been obtained. Steady-state probabilities, steady-state availability and mean time to failure have been derived.     

Cost analysis of a system with common cause failure and two types of repair facilities

A mathematical model to predict the cost involved to run an n-component single unit system which can fail in n-mutually exclusive ways of total failure or due to common cause, has been developed. Each component has two modes (normal and failure) with two types of repair facilities. Repair rates are arbitrary functions of the time spent. All other transition rates are constant. Laplace transform of the state probabilities are developed along with steady-state behaviour of the system. Inversions are computed to determine the expected profit and availability of the system at any time.     

Availability and MTTF analysis of a three-state parallel redundant multi-component system under critical human failures

This paper deals with the availability and mean time to failure of a single server complex system made up of two classes A and B under critical human errors. Sub-system A has two identical components arranged in parallel whereas B has N non-identical components arranged in series. The complex redundant system has three states, viz. good, degraded, failed and suffers two types of failures, viz. unit failure and failure due to critical human errors. The failure and repair times for the system follow exponential and general distributions respectively. Laplace transforms of the probabilities of the complex system being in various states have been obtained along with steady state behaviour of the equipment. A numerical example has also been appended in the end to highlight the important results. There is only one repair facility, which is availed only when the system is in failed state due to failure of sub-system B.     

A multi-component standby system subject to inspection and truncated normal failure time distribution

This paper investigates a stochastic model of a single server, two identical unit cold standby system. Each unit consists of n separately maintained independent components arranged in series. After each failure, an inspection is required to detect which component of the unit has failed. The failure time distribution of a unit is truncated normal while all the other time distributions are negative exponential. Using the regenerative point technique, we obtained various measures of system effectiveness to carry out the profit function analysis.     

Cost analysis of a three-state repairable redundant complex system under various modes of failures

In this paper investigations have been carried out for the availability and mean time to failure analysis of a three unit repairable electronic equipment having three states; viz; good, degraded and failed under critical human errors. The three states three units repairable electronic equipment suffers two types of failures; viz; unit failure and failure due to critical human errors. Entire system can fail due to critical human errors. The failure and repair times for the system follow exponential and general distributions respectively. Laplace transforms of the probabilities of the complex system being in various states are obtained along with steady state behaviour of the equipment. A numerical example has also been appended to highlight the important results. Three graphs have also been given in the end. There is only one repair facility, which is availed only when the system is in either degraded or failed state due to unit failure.     

Cost analysis of a 3-state 2-unit reparable system

This paper presents the cost analysis of a 2-unit system with 3 states: good, degraded and failed. The units suffer from two types of failure: partial and catastrophic. The partial failure brings a unit to degraded state, whereas the catastrophic failure breaks down a unit completely. There is one repair facility, which is availed only when the system is either degraded or failed. The failure and repair times for the system follow exponential and general distributions respectively. Laplace transforms of various probability states have been obtained along with steady-state behaviour of the system. Inversions have also been computed so as to obtain time dependent probabilities, which determine expected profit as well as availability of the system at any time.     

Reliability and availability analysis of a system with warm standby and common cause failures

This paper presents reliability and availability analyses of a two unit parallel system with warm standby and common-cause failures. The standby and switching mechanisms are subject to failure. The failed system repair times are assumed to be arbitrarily distributed. Expressions for Laplace transforms of system state probabilities, steady state system availability, system reliability, and mean time to failure are developed.     

Availability analysis of a two-unit (dissimilar) parallel system with inspection and bivariate exponential life times

This paper investigates a two-units (non-identical) parallel system. Inspection is required to detect a failed unit but not the system with both failed units. The life time distribution of each unit is bivariate exponential (BVE) while the other distributions (i.e. repair, inspection and interinspection time) are arbitrary. Various state probabilities along with steady-state characteristics of the system are investigated.     

A two (multicomponent) unit parallel system with standby and common cause failure

This paper investigates the mathematical model of a system composed of two non-identical active parallel units and one cold standby. A unit has N components, each having a constant failure and repair rate. These vary from component to component. Several reliability characteristics of interest to system designers as well as operations managers have been computed. Results obtained earlier are verified as particular cases.     

Fault-Tree Analysis by Fuzzy Probability

In conventional fault-tree analysis, the failure probabilities of components of a system are treated as exact values in estimating the failure probability of the top event. For many systems, it is often difficult to evaluate the failure probabilities of components from past occurrences because the environments of the systems change. Furthermore, it might be necessary to consider possible failure of components even if they have never failed before. We, therefore, propose to employ the possibility of failure, viz. a fuzzy set defined in probability space. The notion of the possibility of failure is more predictive than that of the probability of failure; the latter is a limiting case of the former. In the present approach based on a fuzzy fault-tree model, the maximum possibility of system failure is determined from the possibility of failure of each component within the system according to the extension principle. In calculating the possibility of system failure, some approximation is made for simplicity.     

Reliability analysis of multi-unit cold standby system with two operating modes

This paper investigates the mathematical model of a system composed of n dissimilar units—one functioning and others either failed or cold standbys. Each unit of the system has three possible modes—normal, partial failure and total failure. There is a perfect switch to operate the leading standby unit on total failure of the operative unit. The failure and repair times of each unit are assumed to follow arbitrary distributions. Several reliability characteristics of interest to system designers as well as operations managers have been evaluated and relevant results obtained earlier are derived as particular cases.     

A k-out-of-N:G three-state unit redundant system with common-cause failures and replacements

A mathematical model for predicting a k-out-of-N:G three-state unit redundant system with common-cause failures and failed system with replacement units has been developed. Laplace transforms of the state probabilities are derived. The steady-state probabilities, frequency of encountering and the average duration of residence in a state are also reported.     

Two 1-Server n-Unit Systems with Preventive Maintenance and Repair

This paper deals with the availability and reliability analysis of two different 1-server n-unit systems with preventive maintenance and repair. Initially, one unit operates and the remaining n - 1 units are kept as cold standbys. In the first system the time to failure and the time to preventive maintenance of a unit are arbitrarily distributed. In the second system, each unit consists of 2 components connected in series. When a unit fails, the failed component is taken up for repair while the other waits for preventive maintenance. Explicit expressions for the Laplace transform of the mean down-time of the system in [0, t] and for the mean time to system failure are obtained. Steady-state availability of the system is also discussed. A few special cases have been studied.     

Availability analysis of a repairable system with common-cause failure and one standby unit

This paper investigates the mathematical model of a system consisting of two non-identical parallel redundant active units, with common-cause failure, and a cold standby unit. The failed units are repaired one at a time or are repaired together, if they fail due to common cause failure. All repair time distributions are arbitrary and different. The analysis is carried out under the assumption of having a single service facility for repair and replacement.Applying the supplementary variable technique, Laplace transforms of the various state probabilities are developed. Explicit expressions for the steady state probabilities and the steady state availability are derived.Some well known results are obtained as special cases. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effect of the repair policy on the steady state probabilities and the availability of the system.     

A two unit series system with correlated failures and repairs

This paper investigates a stochastic model of a system having two identical units, each with two components, arranged in series configuration. Upon failure of a component of the unit, the standby unit replaces the failed unit instantaneously. It is assumed that the joint distribution of the repair and failure times of a component are bivariate exponential. Several reliability characteristics of interest to system designers as well as operations managers have been evaluated and relevant results obtained earlier are verified as a particular case. The MTSF and availability have also been studied through graphs.     

Cost analysis of an electronic repairable redundant system with critical human errors

In this paper, an electronic system consisting of two subsystems connected in series has been considered. One subsystem consists of two identical units connected in parallel while the other subsystem has only one unit. The system is to be in any of the three states: good, degraded and failed. The system suffers two types of failures, viz; unit failure and failure due to critical human error. The system can be repaired when it fails due to the failure of the units in the subsystems and cannot be repaired when it fails due to critical human errors. The repair for the system in any state follows general distribution. To make the system more applicable to practical life problems, time dependent probabilities have been evaluated so as to forecast the expected profit and the operational availability of the system at any time.     

Reliability analysis and optimization applications of a two-unit standby redundant system with spare units

Consider a two-unit standby redundant system with two main units, one repair facility, and n spare units. When the main unit has failed and the other is under repair, a spare unit takes over the operation and if it fails, it is replaced by a new one until the repair of the failed unit is completed. The system fails when the last spare unit fails while one main unit is under repair and the other has failed. In this paper, we derive expressions for 1) the distribution function of the first time to system failure, 2) the probability that the total number of failed spare units during the time interval (0,t] is n and 3) the mean of the total number of failed spare units in (0,t] and its asymptotic behaviour. Introducing costs incurred for each failed main unit and each failed spare unit, the expected cost per unit of time of the system was also derived. Finally an optinmization problem is discussed in order to compare the expected cost of the system with both main units and spare units with that of spare units only, and particular cases are considered.     

Analysis of 1-out-of-n: G adjustable operating system

This paper deals with the analysis of a single unit Adjustable Operating system supported by (n ? 1) inactive standbys and a repair facility. Various operating characteristics are studied, viz. transit probabilities, failure time distribution and mean time to failure of the system, availability of the system at time t, s-expected number of failures of the system in (0,t], s-expected number of repairs in (0,t]. Results are obtained in terms of L.S. transforms. A few special cases are studied for n = 3.