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Reliability of various 2-out-of-4:G redundant systems with minimal repair

journal contribution
posted on 2012-04-16, 11:44 authored by Vincent Dwyer
In safety critical applications, it is becoming quite common to improve reliability through the use of quadruplexed, redundant subsystems organized with 2-out-of-4:G (2oo4:G) logic. As the subsystems involved will generally be complex, comprising many individual components, they are likely to fail at a time-dependent rate λ(t). The maintenance schedule here is assumed to require failed subsystems to be repaired and workable within a given time τ of failure; and repairs are assumed to be minimal so that all functioning subsystems possess the same rate λ(t). Within this context, we consider the dependence of the system reliability measures on the allowed repair time τ by providing solutions to two integro-differential-delay equations (IDDEs) which bound the exact solution above and below; these bounds may be tightened by iterating the IDDEs to higher order. Results for the stationary system are used to investigate the order required to provide sufficiently tight bounds for the general case. In addition, we consider examples in support of the conjecture of Solov'yev and Zaytsev (Engineering Cybernetics, 1975) that if λ(t)τ is small, then the (asymptotic) instantaneous hazard function of the system hs(t), with a time-varying λ(t), will approach (λ(t)τ → 0) the limit hso(λ(t),τ), where hso(λ, τ) is the asymptotical hazard rate for the same system with constant failure rates. This method then allows for a simple analysis of the case of arbitrary time-varying λ(t) in terms of the much simpler stationary case.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Citation

DWYER, V.M., 2012. Reliability of various 2-out-of-4:G redundant systems with minimal repair. IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 61 (1), pp. 170 - 179

Publisher

© IEEE

Version

  • NA (Not Applicable or Unknown)

Publication date

2012

Notes

This article was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Reliability [© IEEE] and is also available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6155069 Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

ISSN

0018-9529

Language

  • en