Citation

Vijayakumar A, Gopalan MN, Radhakrishnan R. Reliab. Eng. 1985; 12(3): 151-159.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1985, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0143-8174(85)90074-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper deals with a shared parallel system consisting of n-units. Initially, all the n units share the total load equally and when one or more units fail, they are sent to the repair facility (with a single server) while the other surviving units share the entire load equally until the failed units are ready for operation after installation. The installation time (switchover time) of a repaired unit is assumed to be non-negligible. The system will be down when all the units are non-operative. Assuming that the failure rates are different when the units function under varying loads, the system characteristics, namely: 1.
(1) the expected up-time of the system during (0, t],
2.
(2) the expected repair time of the units which failed due to varying failure rates during (0, t] and
3.
(3) the expected time the units spend in the installation (switchover) state during the period (0, t],
are studied by identifying the system at suitable regeneration epochs. The failure and repair rates are assumed to be constants while the installation time is assumed to be arbitrarily distributed. The cost-benefit analysis is also carried out using these system characteristics.