SEMI-MARKOV EMBEDDABLE RELIABILITY STRUCTURES AND APPLICATIONS TO LOAD-SHARING κ-OUT-OF-n SYSTEMS

摘要

This paper deals with the application of nonhomogeneous semi-Markov processes in reliability modeling. The notion of a semi-Markov embeddable reliability structure is introduced and discussed. As an example, load-sharing κ-out-of-n: G systems of equal components with arbitrary life distributions under the equal load-sharing rule are treated in the context of semi-Markov embeddable systems. Besides some discussion about load-life models, the case of repairable components is to some extent treated as well.