Title: Availability of deteriorated system with inspection subject to common-cause failure and human error

Authors: Mohammed A. Hajeeh

Addresses: Techno-Economics Division, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 24885, Safat 13109, Kuwait

Abstract: In this paper, a Markovian model was used to derive a closed form expression for the steady state availability for a system that is allowed to undergo several stages of deteriorations subject to several failures at each state. The failures include random failure, common-cause failure and human error. The system is inspected after each deteriorated state, where one of the two actions is possible, no action or minimal repair which brings the system to the previous deteriorated state. A complete replacement is allowed after n deteriorated states. Moreover, the system is allowed to become as good as new after common-cause or human error failures. The steady state availability is derived for the complete problem, and for three special cases. An example is provided to illustrate the performance of the different cases.

Keywords: Markovian models; minimal repair; replacement; stages; performance; operational research; human error; system deterioration; random failure; common-cause failure; steady state availability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2011.042506

International Journal of Operational Research, 2011 Vol.12 No.2, pp.207 - 222

Published online: 14 Feb 2015 *

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