On the reliability function of a system of components sharing a common environment

Abstract

A multivariate distribution for describing the life-lengths of the components of a system which operates in an environment that is different from the test bench environment has been proposed by Lindley and Singpurwalla (1986). In this paper, the properties of the reliability function of such a system are studied and comparisons made with the reliability function obtained under the assumption of independence. It is interesting to note that the reliability function of parallel redundant systems whose components share a common unknown environment cannot be characterized by any of the well-known classes of distributions that have been proposed in the mathematical theory of reliability. This observation suggests the need for defining a new class of failure distributions. A formula for making Bayesian inferences for the reliability function is also given.