Switch failure in a two-unit standby system with better utilization of units

This paper analyses a two-unit cold standby system with three modes and a switching device to put the offline unit into operation. The cold standby starts operating only after it becomes active. When turned on, the transfer switch (TS) operates successfully with fixed probability p(≡1 ? q). A single service facility is available to (i) repair a partially or totally failed unit, (ii) repair the failed TS and (iii) activate the cold standby unit. The failure rates are constant, the activation and the repair rates are general.