A Class of General Reliability Growth Prediction Models

In structuring reliability growth prediction models as Markov chains it is seen that the computation of the reliability after n trials and possible associated repairs R, may be accomplished with any of several different methods. This paper considers a class of models that accommodates variations in several important factors, such as the interdependences of assignable cause failure modes, inclusion of an inherent failure mode, the repair policy, and the distribution of initial states of the system.