Common cause failure analysis of redundant systems.

Abstract

This study is concerned with the reliability analysis of commonly used repairable and non-repairable redundant systems (with common-cause failures) such as parallel, k-out-of-n and standby with identical and non-identical units. Formulas for steady state system availability, system reliability and system mean time to failure are developed. The variation of steady state system availability, system reliability and system mean time to failure with common-cause failures is shown by means of plots for the above mentioned configurations. This study clearly shows that the occurrence of common-cause failures has a negative effect on system reliability parameters.