Analysis of a two-dissimilar unit cold standby redundant system subject to inspection and random change in units

This paper deals with the stochastic behaviour of a two-dissimilar unit cold standby redundant system with random change in units. In this system each unit works in two different modes-normal and total failure. It is assumed that the failure, repair, post repair, interchange of units and inspection times are stochastically independent random variables, each having an arbitrary distribution. The system is analysed by the semi-Markov process technique. Some reliability measures of interest to system designers as well as operations managers have been obtained. Explicit expressions for the Laplace-Stieltjes transforms of the distribution function of the first passage time, mean time to system failure are obtained. Certain important results have been derived as particular cases. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.