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Article
Publication date: 19 September 2019

Afshin Yaghoubi, Seyed Taghi Akhavan Niaki and Hadi Rostamzadeh

The purpose of this paper is to derive a closed-form expression for the steady-state availability of a cold standby repairable k-out-of-n system. This makes the availability…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to derive a closed-form expression for the steady-state availability of a cold standby repairable k-out-of-n system. This makes the availability calculation much easier and accurate.

Design/methodology/approach

Assuming exponential distributions for system failure and repair, the Markov method is employed to derive the formula.

Findings

The proposed formula establishes an easier and faster venue and provides accurate steady-state availability.

Research limitations/implications

The formula is valid for the case when the probability density function of the component failure and the repair is exponential.

Originality/value

The Markov method has never been used in the literature to derive the steady-state availability of a cold standby repairable k-out-of-n: G system.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 January 2022

Abbas Bin Jibril, V.V. Singh and Dilip Kumar Rawal

The purpose of this paper is to deliberate the system reliability of a system in combination of three subsystems in a series configuration in which all three subsystems function…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to deliberate the system reliability of a system in combination of three subsystems in a series configuration in which all three subsystems function under a k-out-of-n: G operational scheme. Based on computed results, it has been demonstrated that copula repair is better than general repair for system better performance. The supplementary variable approach with implications of copula distribution has been employed for assessing the system performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Probabilistic assessment of complex system consisting three subsystems, multi-failure threats and copula repair approach is used in this study. Abbas Jubrin Bin, V.V. Singh, D.K. Rawal, in this research paper, have analyzed a system consisting of three subsystems in a series configuration in which all three subsystems function under a k-out-of-n: G operational scheme. The supplementary variable approach with implications of copula distribution has been employed for assessing the system performance. Based on computed results, it has been demonstrated that copula repair is better than general repair for system better performance.

Findings

In this analysis, four different cases of availability are analysed for Gumbel–Hougaard family copula and also four cases for general repair with similar failure rates are studied. The authors found that when failure rates increase, the system availability decreases, and when the system follows copula repair distribution, the system availability is better than general repair.

Research limitations/implications

This research may be implemented in various industrial systems where the subsystems are configured under k-out-of-n: G working policy. It is also advisable that copula repair is highly recommended for best performances from the system. On the basis of mean time to system failure (MTSF) computations, the failure rate which affects system failure more needs to be controlled by monitoring, servicing and replacing stratagem.

Practical implications

This research work has great implications in various industrial systems like power plant systems, nuclear power plant, electricity distributions system, etc. where the k-out-of-n-type of system operation scheme is validated for system operations with the multi-repair.

Originality/value

This work is a new work by authors. In the previously available technical analysis of the system, the researchers have analyzed the repairable system either supplementary variable approach, supplementary variable and system which have two subsystems in a series configuration. This research work analyzed a system with three subsystems with a multi-repair approach and supplementary variables.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 40 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 September 2011

Ragi Krishnan and S. Somasundaram

The purpose of this paper is to study repairable consecutive‐k‐out‐of‐n: systems with r repairmen and a sensing device.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study repairable consecutive‐k‐out‐of‐n: systems with r repairmen and a sensing device.

Design/methodology/approach

The system can either be a circular C(k, n: G) system or a linear C(k, n: G) system. The working time and the repair time of each component in the system and the sensor detection time are exponentially distributed. Every component after repair is perfect. Each component is classified as either a key component, or an ordinary one according to its priority role to system's repair. A sensing device is introduced to detect the failure of each component in the system in advance and completion of repair of components. If the repair is completed, the sensor will send the component to standby according to its priority. The state transition probabilities of the system are derived using the definition of generalized transition probability. To obtain the reliability and availability Laplace transform techniques have been used.

Findings

The Kolmogorov‐Feller forward equations are derived for both linear and circular systems. Reliability and MTTF of both the systems are derived using Laplace transforms. Numerical examples are given in detail to demonstrate the theoretical results and these verify the validity of the studied system.

Research limitations/implications

A consecutive‐k‐out‐of‐n system consists of a sequence of n‐ordered components along a line or a circle such that the system is good if and only if at least k consecutive components in the system are good. Each component in the system is classified as key component or ordinary component according to its priority in system functioning. By using a sensing device the failure can be detected in advance.

Originality/value

This study indicates that by using a sensing device we can detect the failure in advance. Thus, the reliability and MTTF of the system can be improved.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 28 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2017

Nupur Goyal, Mangey Ram, Shubham Amoli and Alok Suyal

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reliability measures, namely, availability, reliability, mean time to failure and expected profit. The authors also analyse the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reliability measures, namely, availability, reliability, mean time to failure and expected profit. The authors also analyse the sensitivity of these reliability measures.

Design/methodology/approach

Depending upon the real industrial relevance, a generalized system which is easily repairable, extremely reliable and of high quality is expected by the rapid growth of the digital economy. Considering reliability, as one of the performance measure, the authors have designed a complex system which consists of three subsystems, namely, A, B and C in series configuration. The subsystem A consists of n numbers of units which are arranged in parallel configuration, subsystem B consists of two sub-subsystems X and Y align parallel to one another, where X is a type of 1-out-of-n:F. Failure and repair rates are assumed to be follow the general distribution.

Findings

The system is deeply studied by the usage of the supplementary variable technique, Laplace transformation and Markov’s law. Various conclusive results such as availability and reliability of the system, mean time to failure, cost and sensitivity analysis have been discussed further.

Originality/value

Through the systematic view of reliability measures of the proposed system, performance of the system can be enhanced under high profit.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 34 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 February 2019

Shao Xiao, Zhixiang Chen and Bhaba R. Sarker

Equipment reliability significantly impacts productivity, and in order to obtain high equipment reliability and productivity, maintenance and production decision should be made…

Abstract

Purpose

Equipment reliability significantly impacts productivity, and in order to obtain high equipment reliability and productivity, maintenance and production decision should be made simultaneously to keep manufacturing system healthy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint optimization of equipment maintenance and production decision for k-out-of-n system equipment with attenuation of product quality and to explore the impact of maintenance on the production and cost control for manufacturers.

Design/methodology/approach

A multi-period Markov chain model for k-out-of-n system equipment is set up based on the assumption that the deterioration of equipment is a pure birth process. Then, the maintenance cost, setup cost, inventory holding cost, shortage cost, production cost and the quality cost are analyzed with the uncertain demand and the attenuation of product quality stemmed from equipment deterioration. The total lowest cost per unit time and its specific calculation method are presented. Finally, the robustness and flexibility of the method are verified by a numerical example and the effects of equipment deterioration intensity and attenuation of product quality are analyzed.

Findings

The result shows that the joint decision model could not only satisfy the uncertain demand with low cost and strong robustness but also make the output products high quality level. In addition, the attenuation of product quality would influence the equipment maintenance and production decision and leads to the production waste and increases the operation cost greatly.

Originality/value

Implications derived from this study can help production maintenance managers and reliability engineers adequately select maintenance policy to improve the equipment efficiency and productivity with high quality level at a relatively low cost.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 36 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2018

Taha Radwan

A multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system consists of m×n components arranged in m rows and n columns. The possible states of the system and its components…

Abstract

Purpose

A multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system consists of m×n components arranged in m rows and n columns. The possible states of the system and its components are: 0, 1, 2, …, H. According to k values, the system can be categorized into three special cases: decreasing, increasing and constant. The system reliability of decreasing and constant cases exists. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the system reliability in increasing case with i.i.d components, where there is no any algorithm for evaluating the system reliability in this case.

Design/methodology/approach

The Boole-Bonferroni bounds were applied for evaluating the reliability of many systems. In this paper, the author reformulated the second-order Boole-Bonferroni bounds to be suitable for the evaluation of the multi-state system reliability. And the author applied these bounds for deriving the lower bound and upper bound of increasing multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system.

Findings

An illustrated example of the proposed bounds and many numerical examples are given. The author tested these examples and concluded the cases that make the new bounds are sharper.

Practical implications

In this paper, the author considered an important and complex system, the multi-state linear k-within-(r, s)-of-(m, n): F lattice system; it is a model for many applications, for example, telecommunication, radar detection, oil pipeline, mobile communications, inspection procedures and series of microwave towers systems.

Originality/value

This paper suggests a method for the computation of the bounds of increasing multi-state linear k-within-(r,s)-of-(m,n): F lattice system. Furthermore, the author concluded that the cases that make these bounds are sharper.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 November 2019

Amit Kumar and Pardeep Kumar

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main components of a wireless communication system, e.g. input transducer, transmitter, communication channel and receiver on the basis…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main components of a wireless communication system, e.g. input transducer, transmitter, communication channel and receiver on the basis of their interconnection for evaluating the various reliability measures for the same.

Design/methodology/approach

Markov process and mathematical modelling is used to formulate a mathematical model of the considered system (on the basis of various failures/repairs).

Findings

Reliability of the wireless communication system with respect to its components failure is obtained and explained with the graphs. Also, critical components of the system are identified with the aid of sensitivity analysis. At last, mean time to failure with variation in various failures is obtained.

Originality/value

In the present paper, a mathematical model based on the working of the wireless communication system has been developed. Conclusions in this paper are good references for the improvement in the same.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 37 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2023

Fan Yang, Hao Chen and Shuai Xu

Quantitative reliability analysis can effectively identify the time the driving system needs to be maintained. Then, the potential safety problems can be found, and some…

Abstract

Purpose

Quantitative reliability analysis can effectively identify the time the driving system needs to be maintained. Then, the potential safety problems can be found, and some catastrophic failures can be effectively prevented. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the reliability of the switched reluctance generator (SRG) driving system.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, a method considering different thermal stresses and fault tolerance capacity is proposed to analyze the reliability of an SRG. A full-bridge power converter (FBPC) instead of the asymmetric half-bridge power converter (AHBPC) is adopted to drive the SRG system. First, the primary fault modes of the SRG system are introduced, and a fault criterion is proposed to determine whether the system fails. Second, the thermal circuit model of the converter is established to quickly and accurately obtain the junction temperature of the devices. At last, the Markov models of different levels are established to evaluate the reliability of the system.

Findings

The results show that the two-level Markov model is the most suitable when compared to the static model and the one-level Markov model.

Originality/value

The driving system of SRG will be more reliable after the reliability of the system is evaluated by the Markov model. At the same time, an FBPC is adopted to drive the SRG. The FBPCs have the advantages of fewer switching devices, higher integration and lower cost. The proposed driving strategy of the FBPC avoids the current reversal and the generation of dead zone time, which has the advantage of reliable operation. In addition, a precise thermal circuit model of the FBPC is proposed, and the junction temperature of each device can be obtained, respectively.

Details

Microelectronics International, vol. 40 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-5362

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 July 2021

Neama Temraz

In this paper, a new general system consisted of l subsystems connected in series is introduced. Each subsystem connected in K-out-of-(n + m): G mixed standby configuration.

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, a new general system consisted of l subsystems connected in series is introduced. Each subsystem connected in K-out-of-(n + m): G mixed standby configuration.

Design/methodology/approach

The lifetime of the system's units is assumed to be exponentially distributed and there is elapsed repair time with general distribution. The switch in each subsystem is assumed to be imperfect with the failure process follows an exponential distribution. A genetic algorithm is applied to the system to obtain the optimal solution of the system and solve the redundancy allocation problem.

Findings

Analysis of availability, reliability, mean time to failure and steady-state availability of the system is introduced. The measures of the system are discussed in special two cases when the elapsed repair time follows gamma and exponential distribution. An optimization problem with bi-objective functions is introduced to minimize the cost of the system and maximize the reliability function. A numeric application is introduced to show the implementation and effectiveness of the system and redundancy allocation problem.

Originality/value

A new general K-out-of-(n + m): G mixed standby model with elapsed repair time and imperfect switching is introduced.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2007

Adolfo Crespo Marquez and Benoît Iung

This paper proposes a method to model and assess the availability and reliability of a system when numerous factors such as system complexity, wide range of failure modes…

1734

Abstract

Purpose

This paper proposes a method to model and assess the availability and reliability of a system when numerous factors such as system complexity, wide range of failure modes, environment, and sustainability may influence system behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach for reliability/availability study is using continuous time stochastic simulation (Monte Carlo simulation) and is based on seven steps for covering logical phases from system description to simulation result discussion. The feasibility and benefits of this approach are shown in a case study on cogeneration plant.

Findings

Owing to the factors influencing the system behaviour, the opportunity to carry out system availability/reliability assessment through analytical models will be many times very restrictive. Thus a general approach to this problem is proposed based on Monte Carlo (stochastic) simulation. The simulation of the system's life process will be carried out in the computer, and estimates will be made for the desired measures of performance. The simulation will then be treated as a series of real experiments, and statistical inference will then be used to estimate confidence intervals for the performance metrics.

Practical implications

Individuals, companies as well as society in general are becoming more and more dependent on increasingly complex technical systems. Moreover, failure of these complex systems often causes a major loss of service with potentially serious consequences (i.e. critical risk). Thus their dependability with its facets such as reliability, availability, safety has become an important issue. For example, the ability of reliability/availability assessment of such systems is invaluable in industrial domains. Indeed reliability/availability assessment is used for various purposes such as maintenance strategy selection, maintenance planning, production planning, risk and cost evaluations. To face with this complexity, the existing analytical models are not well adapted to carry out system modelling and assessment due mainly to assumptions that are difficult to validate. This paper looks into this issue by proposing a generic approach based on Monte Carlo (stochastic) simulation.

Originality/value

The Monte Carlo simulation method allows one to consider various relevant aspects of systems operation that cannot be easily captured by analytical models. The utilisation of this method is growing for the assessment of overall plants availability and the monetary value of plant operation.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

Keywords

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