Stochastic analysis of a two non-identical unit parallel system with different types of failures subject to preventive maintenance and repairs

Abstract

This paper studies the stochastic analysis of a two non-identical unit parallel system with common-cause failure, critical human error, non-critical human error, preventive maintenance, and two types of repair. The system goes for preventive maintenance at random epochs. We assume that the failure, repair, replacement, and maintenance times are independent random variables and their rates are constant for each unit. The system is analyzed by using the graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT) to obtain various related measures. We study the effect of the preventive maintenance on the system performance. Certain important results have been derived as special cases. The plots for the mean time to system failure and the steady-state availability A(∞) of the system are drawn for different parametric values. © 2013 Mohamed Salah EL-Sherbeny.