Analysis of a k-out-of-n unit system with two types of failure and preventive maintenance

A k-out-of-n unit system is analysed with two types of failure: (1) failure due to change in operating characteristics and (2) catastrophic failure. Preventive maintenance of the system is allowed at random epochs. All transition rates are taken to be general. Several measures of reliability useful for system designers and operations managers have been obtained by using regenerative point technique with Markov renewal process. Some important results obtained earlier are shown as particular cases.