Title: Simulation of a non-stationary gamma wear process

Authors: Anil Rana

Addresses: College of Engineering Science and Technology (CEST), Fiji National University, Derrick Campus, Samabula, Suva, Fiji

Abstract: All mechanical components suffer from monotonically increasing wear/deterioration. A non-stationary gamma wear process can model such a wear by taking care of the temporal variability in the wear phenomenon; however, this makes the shape parameter of the gamma process a function of time leading to a problem in its simulation, especially so in the presence of other competing failure modes. This paper presents a method by which one can map a non-stationary gamma wear process to a mixed exponential process and demonstrate its suitability for analysis through a simulation package involving use of stochastic petrinets. A stochastic petrinet simulation package 'Timenet' compares the result of the above method with the analytically determined result through a Matlab program. The originality of the paper lies in demonstration of a method for analysis of a non-stationary gamma wear process through a simulation package.

Keywords: non-stationary gamma wear process; simulation; stochastic petrinets.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRS.2017.088547

International Journal of Reliability and Safety, 2017 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.50 - 62

Received: 21 Oct 2016
Accepted: 08 Sep 2017

Published online: 11 Dec 2017 *

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