Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T06:09:43.736Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Multistate coherent systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

E. El-Neweihi
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
F. Proschan
Affiliation:
Florida State University
J. Sethuraman
Affiliation:
Florida State University

Abstract

The vast majority of reliability analyses assume that components and system are in either of two states: functioning or failed. The present paper develops basic theory for the study of systems of components in which any of a finite number of states may occur, representing at one extreme perfect functioning and at the other extreme complete failure. We lay down axioms extending the standard notion of a coherent system to the new notion of a multistate coherent system. For such systems we obtain deterministic and probabilistic properties for system performance which are analogous to well-known results for coherent system reliability.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1978 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1] Barlow, R. E. and Proschan, F. (1975) Statistical Theory of Reliability and Life Testing. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
[2] Barlow, R. E. (1977) Coherent systems with multi-state components. ORC 77–5, Operations Research Center, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
[3] Birnbaum, Z. W. (1960) On the probabilistic theory of complex structures. Proc. 4th Berkeley Symp. Math. Statist. Prob. , 4955.Google Scholar
[4] Birnbaum, Z. W. and Esary, J. D. (1965) Some inequalities for reliability functions. Proc. 5th Berkeley Symp. Math. Statist. Prob. , 271283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Birnbaum, Z. W., Esary, J. D. and Marshall, A. W. (1966) Stochastic characterization of wearout for components and systems. Ann. Math. Statist. 37, 816825.Google Scholar
[6] Birnbaum, Z. W., Esary, J. D. and Saunders, S. C. (1961) Multicomponent systems and structures and their reliabilities. Technometrics 3, 5577.Google Scholar
[7] Esary, J. D. and Proschan, F. (1963) Coherent structures of non-identical components. Technometrics 5, 191209.Google Scholar
[8] Hirsch, W. M. et al. (1968) Cannibalization in multicomponent systems and the theory of reliability. Naval Res. Logist. Quart. 15, 331359.Google Scholar
[9] Hochberg, M. (1973) Generalized multicomponent systems under cannibalization. Naval Res. Logist. Quart. 20, 585605.Google Scholar
[10] Murchland, J. D. (1975) Fundamental concepts and relations for reliability analysis of multistate systems. In Reliability and Fault Tree Analysis , ed. Barlow, R. E., Fussell, J., and Singpurwalla, N. D. SIAM, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
[11] Postelnicu, V. (1970) Nondichotomic multicomponent structures. Bull. Soc. Sci. Math. R. S. Roumaine 14 (62), 209217.Google Scholar
[12] Ross, S. (1977) Multi-valued state component reliability systems. Technical Report, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
[13] Simon, R. M. (1970) Optimal cannibalization policies for multi-component systems. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 19, 700711.Google Scholar
[14] Simon, R. M. (1972) The reliability of multicomponent systems subject to cannibalization. Naval Res. Logist. Quart. 19, 114.Google Scholar