Dynamic Behavior of <i>k</I>-out-of-<i>n< Systems

Abstract

In this paper, we study the distribution and expected value of the number of working components at time t in usual and weighted k-out-of-n:G systems under the condition that they are working at time t. We evaluate the distribution of the corresponding conditional random variable and compute its expected value for the systems consisting of independent but nonidentical components. Illustrative examples are presented and an optimization problem which makes use of the conditional random variable is also formulated and solved numerically. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.