Discrete Time Series-Parallel System and Its Optimal Configuration

Abstract

This paper is concerned with properties of series-parallel systems when the component lifetimes have discrete failure time distribution. For a series-parallel system consisting of a specified number of subsystems, we particularly focus on the number of failed components in each subsystem at the time when the system fails. Each subsystem is assumed to have identical components while different subsystems have different types of components. Assuming all components within the system are independent, we obtain exact distributions of the number of failed components at the time when the system fails. For the special case when the components have phase-type failure time distributions, matrix-based expressions are derived for the quantities under concern. The results are used to obtain optimal configuration of the series-parallel system which is replaced at failure.