The structural Birnbaum importance of consecutive-k systems (Q1598881)

The paper deals with three types of structural Birnbaum importance of components in a consecutive-\(k\) system. The consecutive-\(k\) system is a linear arrangement of \(n\) components such that the system fails if and only if some \(k\) consecutive components are all failed. The following three tasks are accomplished: i) survey existing results, including pointing out results but proofs are incomplete; ii) some new results and useful lemmas are given; iii) what are still provable and what are not with the help of extensive computing are observed. The paper has a cognitive character and is addressed to researches working in the area of system reliability theory.