Availability equivalence analysis of a repairable multi-state series-parallel system

The availability equivalence of different designs for a repairable multi-state series-parallel system (RMSPS) is discussed in this paper. The system components are assumed to be independent, and their failure and repair rates to be constant. The system availability is defined as the ability of the system to satisfy consumer demand. Factor improvement method and standby redundancy method are used to improve the system design. To evaluate availability of the both original and improved systems, a fast technique, based on universal generating function, is adopted. The availability equivalence factor is introduced to compare different system designs. Two types of availability equivalence factors of the system are derived. A numerical example is provided to illustrate how to utilize the obtained results.