Aging properties of the residual life length of k-out-of-n systems with independent but non-identical components

Abstract

The k-out-of-n structure is a very popular type of redundancy in fault-tolerant systems, it has founded wide applications in industrial and military systems during the past several decades. This paper will investigate the residual life length of a k-out-of-n system with independent (not necessarily identical) components, given that the (n - k)th failure has occurred at time t≥0. Behaviour of PF2, IFR, DRHR, DMRL, NBU(2) and NBUC classes of life distributions are derived in terms of the monotonicity of the residual life given the time of the (n - k)th failure. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.