Reliability properties of consecutive k-out-of-n systems of arbitrarily dependent components

Abstract In this paper, the reliability properties of consecutive k-out-of-n systems with arbitrarily dependent components are studied. For 2 k ⩾ n we present efficient formulas to compute the reliability characteristics such as meantime to failure, failure rate, and mean residual lifetime. Approximations for the survival functions when 1 ⩽ k ⩽ n are also provided. The results are illustrated for the multivariate survival distribution generated by a Weibull and Inverse-Gaussian mixture.

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