Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 2007 (2007), Article ID 43565, 18 pages
doi:10.1155/2007/43565
Research Article

Reliability of Modules with Load-Sharing Components

Mark Bebbington,1 Chin-Diew Lai,1 and Ričardas Zitikis2

1Institute of Information Sciences and Technology, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand
2Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London N6A 5B7, Ontario, Canada

Received 17 April 2007; Accepted 8 August 2007

Academic Editor: Paul Cowpertwait

Copyright © 2007 Mark Bebbington et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

To increase the reliability of modules, and thus of systems assembled from them, they are frequently constructed using parallel load-sharing components. Examples include jet engines, electrical power networks, and telecommunications networks. We consider the situation when the components operate independently, but when any one of them fails, the load of the failed component is instantaneously distributed among the working components. The entire module fails when the last working component fails. We analyze the survival probability and residual life expectancy of such modules. An obvious application is to the case of the 1998 Auckland power supply failure in New Zealand.