Reliability modeling for dependent competitive failure processes

Abstract

In practical engineering applications, many factors of systems themselves and of random environments cause systems to suffer from degradation and shocks. Degradations, such as wear and erosion, occur in many systems, especially mechanical systems. Shocking is also a significant cause of system failure and hence has been paid more attention to. Shocks caused by the factors of the systems themselves usually have regular periods; especially for rotating devices, shocks have approximately fixed periods. Shocks caused by the factors of random environment usually follow Poisson process. In this paper, a new system reliability model is proposed for systems that involve dependent and competitive degradations and shocks. This model will have wide application in many fields. A numerical example is given to illustrate the model.