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On the reliability function of a system of components sharing a common environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Allen Currit  and
Nozer D. Singpurwalla
Allen Currit*
Affiliation:
International Business Machines
Nozer D. Singpurwalla*
Affiliation:
The George Washington University
*
∗Postal address: IBM S.P.D. Division, Rochester, MI 55901, USA.
∗∗Postal address: Department of Operations Research, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.
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Abstract

A multivariate distribution for describing the life-lengths of the components of a system which operates in an environment that is different from the test bench environment has been proposed by Lindley and Singpurwalla (1986). In this paper, the properties of the reliability function of such a system are studied and comparisons made with the reliability function obtained under the assumption of independence. It is interesting to note that the reliability function of parallel redundant systems whose components share a common unknown environment cannot be characterized by any of the well-known classes of distributions that have been proposed in the mathematical theory of reliability. This observation suggests the need for defining a new class of failure distributions. A formula for making Bayesian inferences for the reliability function is also given.

Keywords

RELIABILITY OF DEPENDENT COMPONENT SYSTEMSCROSSING PROPERTIESGOLDEN RATIOBAYESIAN INFERENCE IN RELIABILITYCLASSES OF LIFE DISTRIBUTIONSROBUSTNESS OF THE INDEPENDENCE ASSUMPTION
Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Applied Probability , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , December 1988 , pp. 763 - 771
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1988 

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Footnotes

Research supported by Contract N00014–85-K-0202, Project NR 042–372, Office of Naval Research and Grant DAAG 29–84-K-0160, The U.S. Army Research Office.

References

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