Consecutive dual failure mode shock systems (Q6073151)

The authors define the following discrete-time dual failure mode shock model: For a given system, times between consecutive shocks are independent and identically distributed. When a shock occurs, it may either result in failure of type I, failure of type II, or no failure. At each shock, these three outcomes occur with fixed probabilities, independent of all else. The entire system fails at the time at which either a run of \(k\) consecutive failures of type I or a run of \(r\) consecutive failures of type II is first observed. In the present paper the authors study the lifetime of the system, that is, the time until system failure. In particular, they derive expressions for the mean, variance and probability generating function of this random variable. They further give a recursive scheme for the calculation of the probability mass function of this lifetime.