A stochastic model for a general load‐sharing system under overload condition

A load‐sharing parallel system functions if at least one unit in the system is functioning and the surviving units share the load. In most of research on load‐sharing system, the performance of the system has been studied only for the case when the lifetimes of components in the system follow exponential distributions. In this paper a load‐sharing parallel system is considered when the lifetimes of the units in the system are any continuous random variables. The reliability function of the system is derived and the problem of load allocation is also considered. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A deteriorating cold standby repairable system with priority in use

In this paper, a cold standby repairable system consisting of two dissimilar components and one repairman is studied. In this system, it is assumed that the working time distributions and the repair time distributions of the two components are both exponential and component 1 is given priority in use. After repair, component 2 is “as good as new” while component 1 follows a geometric process repair. Under these assumptions, using the geometric process and a supplementary variable technique, some important reliability indices such as the system availability, reliability, mean time to first failure (MTTFF), rate of occurrence of failure (ROCOF) and the idle probability of the repairman are derived. A numerical example for the system reliability R(t) is given. And it is considered that a repair-replacement policy based on the working age T of component 1 under which the system is replaced when the working age of component 1 reaches T. Our problem is to determine an optimal policy T^∗ such that the long-run average cost per unit time of the system is minimized. The explicit expression for the long-run average cost per unit time of the system is evaluated, and the corresponding optimal replacement policy T^∗ can be found analytically or numerically. Another numerical example for replacement model is also given.     

A periodical replacement model based on cumulative repair‐cost limit

This paper considers a periodical replacement model based on a cumulative repair‐cost limit, whose concept uses the information of all repair costs to decide whether the system is repaired or replaced. The failures of the system can be divided into two types. One is minor failure that is assumed to be corrected by minimal repair, while the other is serious failure where the system is damaged completely. When a minor failure occurs, the corresponding repair cost is evaluated and minimal repair is then executed if this accumulated repair cost is less than a pre‐determined limit L, otherwise, the system is replaced by a new one. The system is also replaced at scheduled time T or at serious failure. Long‐run expected cost per unit time is formulated and the optimal period T* minimizing that cost is also verified to be finite and unique under some specific conditions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reliability assessment for load‐sharing systems with exponential components using statistical expansion as a correction

Among recent system models, one specific type of system is generally used to model the dependence among components. Components are connected parallel in such systems as they fail one by one and are supposed to share the system work load. The model is thus referred to as the load‐sharing system model. Despite the availability of extensive reliability assessment methods for different systems, load‐sharing systems have not received enough attention from the scholars who have studied reliability assessment so far. Load‐sharing systems are generally designed for high levels of reliability. Therefore, tests for such systems can be expensive and time consuming. Limitation on resources always leads to small test sample sizes. This increases the difficulties associated with obtaining an accurate and robust system reliability assessment result. This paper proposes a novel assessment method for a certain type of load‐sharing system with components following exponential lifetime distributions. Based on the parameter estimation of the system reliability model, we introduce the Winterbottom‐Cornish‐Fisher asymptotic expansion method for implementing a correction of normal approximation. We demonstrate the accuracy of our method through a series of examples and simulation studies.     

New failure and minimal repair processes for repairable systems in a random environment

Most often, minimal repair is defined as a replacement of a failed item by an operable item that has the same distribution of the remaining lifetime as the failed one just prior a failure. This is the so‐called statistical minimal repair extensively explored in the literature. Another well‐known type of minimal repair takes into account the state of a system prior to a failure (the information‐based minimal repair). In this paper, we suggest the new type of minimal repair to be called conditional statistical minimal repair. Our approach goes further and deals with the corresponding minimal repair processes for systems operating in a random environment. Moreover, we also consider heterogeneous populations of items, which makes the model more realistic. Both of these aspects that affect the failure mechanism of items are studied. Environment is modeled by the nonhomogeneous Poisson shock process. Two models for the failure mechanism defined by the extreme shock model and the cumulative shock model, respectively, are considered. Some examples illustrating our findings are presented.     

修理工可单重休假的预防维修更换策略

本文研究了一个修理工带有单重休假的单部件可修系统.为了延长系统的使用寿命,在系统故障前考虑了预防维修,且假定预防维修能够“修复如新”,而故障维修为“修复非新”时,以系统的故障次数N为更换策略.通过更新过程和几何过程理论,得出系统经长期运行单位时间内期望费用的明显表达式,并对预防维修的定长间隔时间T及更换策略N进行了讨论,最后,通过实例分析,求出最优策略N’,使得目标函数取得最优值.     

Replacement Policies under Minimal Repair

In many situations where system failures occur the concept of ‘minimal repair’ is important. A minimal repair occurs when the failed system is not treated so as to return it to ‘as new’ condition but is instead returned to the average condition for a working system of its age. Examples include complex systems where the repair or replacement of one component does not materially affect the condition of the whole system.For a system with decreasing reliability it will become increasingly expensive to maintain operation by minimal repairs, and the question then arises as to when the entire system should be replaced. We consider cases where the failure distribution can be modelled by the Weibull distribution. Two policies have been suggested for this case. One is to replace at a fixed time and the other is to replace at a fixed number of failures. We consider a third policy, to replace at the next failure after a fixed time, and show that it is optimal.Expressions to decide the replacement point and the cost of this policy are derived. Unfortunately these do not give rise to explicit representations, and so they are used to provide extensive numerical comparisons of the policies in a search for effective explicit approximations. Conclusions are drawn from these comparisons regarding the relative effectiveness of the policies and approximations.     

Analysis of a system with minimal repair and its application to replacement policy

The periodic replacement with minimal repair at failures is studied by many authors, however, there is not a clear definition for minimal repair. This paper defines a minimal repair in the term of the failure rate and devices some probability quantities and reliability properties. As an application of these results, the replacement model where a system is replaced at time T or at nth failure are considered and the optimum policies are discussed.     

带有多重休假及预防维修的冲击模型二维更换策略

研究了修理工带有多重休假且定期检测的累积冲击模型.为了延长系统的运行时间,在检测时考虑了预防维修.将事后维修和预防维修结合起来运用于可修系统,且假定预防维修能够"修复如新",而事后维修为"修复非新".以系统的检测周期和故障次数为二维决策变量,选取系统经长期运行单位时间内期望费用为目标函数.并通过数值分析,求出了最优策略.     

The average optimality of a repair-limit replacement policy

We consider a minimal-repair and replacement problem of a reliability system whose state at a failure is described by a pair of two attributes, i.e., the total number of its past failures and the current failure level. It is assumed that the system is bothered by more frequent and more costly failures as time passes. Our problem is to find and/or characterize a minimal-repair and replacement policy of minimizing the long-run average expected maintenance cost per unit time over the infinite time horizon. Formulating the problem as a semi-Markov decision process, we show that a repairlimit replacement policy is average optimal. That is, for each total number of past system failures, there exists a threshold, called a repair limit, such that it is optimal to repair minimally if the current failure level is lower than the repair limit, and to replace otherwise. Furthermore, the repair limit is decreasing in the total number of past system failures.     

两部件冷备系统的可靠性分析及其最优更换策略

本文研究了两个不同部件、一个修理工组成的冷贮备可修系统,假定它们的寿命分布和维修分布均匀为指数分布,但故障后均不能修复如新时,我们利用几何过程和补充变量法求得了一些可靠性指标,并以故障次数为策略,以长期运行单位时间内的期望效益为目标函数,确定了最优的故障次数,便得目标函数达到最大值,从而保证了系统的可用度。     

Optimal burn-in for maximizing reliability of repairable non-series systems

Burn-in is a manufacturing process applied to products to eliminate early failures in the factory before the products reach the customers. Various methods have been proposed for determining an optimal burn-in time of a non-repairable system or a repairable series system, assuming that system burn-in improves all components in the system. In this paper, we establish the trade-off between the component reliabilities during system burn-in and develop an optimal burn-in time for repairable non-series systems to maximize reliability. One impediment to expressing the reliability of a non-series system is in that successive failures during system burn-in cannot be described precisely because a failed component is not detected until the whole system fails. For approximating the successive failures of a non-series system during system burn-in, we considered two types of repair: minimal repair at the time of system failure, and repair at the time of component or connection failure. The two types of repair provide bounds on the optimal system burn-in time of non-series systems.     

修理设备可更换且修理延迟的两相同部件冷储备可修系统(Ⅱ)

在文[1]的基础上,本文研究了修理有延迟和修理设备可更换的两单元冷储备可修系统.在假定单元的寿命服从指数分布、修理时间和延迟时间服从一般分布、修理设备的寿命和故障后的更换时间服从指数分布下,通过定义修理设备的"广义忙期",使用更新过程理论和全概率分解技术,提出一种新的分析技巧,讨论了修理设备的一些可靠性指标,获得了如修理设备的可用度和故障次数等可靠性结果.     

An extended replacement policy for a deteriorating system with multi-failure modes

In this paper, the maintenance problem for a deteriorating system with k + 1 failure modes, including an unrepairable failure (catastrophic failure) mode and k repairable failure (non-catastrophic failure) modes, is studied. Assume that the system after repair is not “as good as new” and its deterioration is stochastic. Under these assumptions, an extended replacement policy N is considered: the system will be replaced whenever the number of repairable failures reaches N or the unrepairable failure occurs, whichever occurs first. Our purpose is to determine an optimal extended policy N^∗ such that the average cost rate (i.e. the long-run average cost per unit time) of the system is minimized. The explicit expression of the average cost rate is derived, and the corresponding optimal extended policy N^∗ can be determined analytically or numerically. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate some theoretical results of the repair model proposed in this paper.     

A load share model for non-identical components of a k-out-of-m system

We consider a k-out-of-m load sharing system when the lifetimes of the components are not necessarily identically distributed random variables. For such systems, a model for the load sharing phenomenon through the exponentiated conditional survival functions of ordered failure times is proposed. This model is more general than the load sharing model with identically distributed component lifetimes and leads to a different family of distributions for ordered random variables. A general expression for the reliability of the system is given. The computations of the reliability for a two component parallel load sharing system corresponding to the exponential and Weibull distributions are discussed. For illustrative purpose, we discuss the inference procedures for a two component parallel load sharing system corresponding to the exponential distributions. A simulation study is carried out to assess the proposed estimation and testing procedures. The applicability of the proposed load sharing model is shown through two data sets.     

延误休假且修理延迟的可修系统的更换策略

研究了修理工多重延误休假且修理延迟的可修系统,假设系统故障后均不能"修复如新",系统在准备休假期间故障的概率为q,系统延迟修理的概率为1-P,以系统故障次数为更换策略,运用更新过程和几何过程理论,得出系统长期运行单位时间内平均停机时间的表达式,并通过数值例子验证了存在最优策略,使得平均停机时间最短.     

Replacement times and costs in a degrading system with several types of failure: The case of phase-type holding times

A reliability system submitted to external and internal failures, that can be repairable or non-repairable, with degradation levels, and with sojourn times phase-type distributed, is considered. Repair is not as good as new, and the repair of internal failure follows policy N, that is, after N completed repairs the system is replaced by a new one to the following failure, repairable or not. For this system, a Markov model is constructed, and the stationary probability vector is calculated. It is shown that the distribution of the time between two consecutive replacements follows a phase-type distribution, whose representation is determined. The costs of these periods are calculated. An optimization problem involving the costs, the availability, and the number of internal repairs is illustrated by a numerical example.     

基于修理设备的冷贮备可修系统的维修策略

本文研究了两同型部件,一个修理设备组成的冷贮备可修系统.在故障部件不能"修复如新"的条件下,分别以系统中部件1故障次数N,工作时间T和(N,T)为维修策略,利用更新过程和几何过程,求出修理设备经长期运行单位时间内平均停工时间表达式.并在部件寿命的分布函数和修理时间的分布函数已知的情况下,以部件1故障次数N为策略证明存在最优N*使修理设备经长期运行单位时间内平均停工时间最长.最后,通过数值例子验证最优策略的存在性.     

修理设备可更换和修理延迟的两类故障状态并联可修系统

考虑两同型部件组成的并联可修系统,每个部件有两类故障状态,部件故障后修理有延迟,且修理设备在修理故障部件的过程中也可能发生故障.假定部件的寿命和修理设备的寿命服从指数分布,部件发生故障后的修理延迟时间、修理时间和修理设备故障后的更换时间均服从一般分布,利用马尔可夫更新过程理论和拉普拉斯变换工具,求得了系统有关的可靠性指标.     

Mixture representation for the residual lifetime of a repairable system

In this paper, we consider a repairable system in which two types of failures can occur on each failure. One is a minor failure that can be corrected with minimal repair, whereas the other type is a catastrophic failure that destroys the system. The total number of failures until the catastrophic failure is a positive random variable with a given probability vector. It is assumed that there is some partial information about the failure status of the system, and then various properties of the conditional probability of the system failure are studied. Mixture representations of the reliability function for the system in terms of the reliability function of the residual lifetimes of record values are obtained. Some stochastic properties of the conditional probabilities and the residual lifetimes of two systems are finally discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.