Availability of k-out-of-m: G repairable system with non-identical elements

Abstract

Element redundancy is widely employed technique to improve the system reliability. A k-out-of-m:G repairable system with statistically independent non-idential elements is considered and an equation of steady state availability for the system under consideration is developed in the present paper. All possible states of the system are arranged into various groups depending upon the number of elements in up state. The probability of finding the system with exactly m+1-i elements in up state is defined as the probability of ith group. The group probabilities are used to derive an equation for the system availability. The method does not require to enumerate all possible states and the solution of resulting state equations as required in case of Markov method. An algorithm suitable for computer application is developed.