Reliability and mean residual life functions of coherent systems in an active redundancy

Abstract In this article, the reliability and the mean residual life (MRL) functions of a system with active redundancies at the component and system levels are investigated. In active redundancy at the component level, the original and redundant components are working together and lifetime of the system is determined by the maximum of lifetime of the original components and their spares. In the active redundancy at the system level, the system has a spare, and the original and redundant systems work together. The lifetime of such a system is then the maximum of lifetimes of the system and its spare. The lifetimes of the original component and the spare are assumed to be dependent random variables. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 64: 19–28, 2017