Common-cause failures in repairable systems

Abstract

Eight models are presented for performing reliability analysis of repairable and nonrepairable redundant systems with common-cause failures. The systems studied are redundant configurations such as parallel, k-out-of-n units, and standby. Repairable systems reliability, mean-time-to-failure, and variance of time to failure formulas are developed. In addition, the reliability analysis of a redundant system composed of three state devices with common-cause failures is presented. Specific plots are developed to demonstrate the effect of common-cause failures on redundant system reliability and mean time of failure. >