Some reliability measures of a system of components sharing a common environment

Abstract

A multivariate distribution for describing the lifespan of the components of a system which operates in an environment whose intensity is in constant overtime but different from that of the test bench (laboratory) environment. The properties of the reliability function of a system of components sharing a common environment are studied in this paper. Comparison would also give a sense of the robustness of independent assumptions in system reliability calculations. It is to be noted that the reliability function of parallel redundant systems whose components share a common unknown environment cannot be characterized by any of the well-known classes of distribution studied in the mathematical theory of reliability. The above conclusions suggest the need for defining and studying the properties of a new class of failure distribution in reliability theory. We have derived the mean time before failure, maintainability M( t), and mean time to failure of the system.