Reliability analysis of coherent systems with exchangeable components

Abstract

In this paper we study reliability properties of coherent systems consisting of n exchangeable components. We focus on the aging behavior of a reliability structure and several results are reached clarifying whether a system displays the IFR/DFR property or not. More specifically, a necessary and sufficient condition is deduced for a system’s lifetime to be IFR, while additional signature-based conditions aiming at the same direction are also delivered. For illustration purposes, special cases of well-known reliability systems and specific lifetimes’ distributions are considered and studied in detail.