Availability analysis of a repairable standby human-machine system

Abstract This paper presents a model representing a two units active and one unit on standby human-machine system with general failed system repair time distribution. In addition, the model takes into consideration the occurrence of common-cause failures. The method of linear ordinary differential equation is presented to obtain general expressions for system steady state availability for failed system repair time distributions such as Gamma, Weibull, lognormal, exponential, and Rayleigh. Generalized expressions for system reliability, time-dependent availability, mean time to failure, and system variance of time to failure are also presented. Selected plots are presented to demonstrate the impact of human error on system steady state availability, reliability, time-dependent availability, and mean time to failure.