Degradation Analysis of k-out-of-n Pairs:G Balanced System with Spatially Distributed Units

Many systems are composed of spatially distributed units which are subject to different operating conditions. The reliability of such systems depends not only on the reliability of individual units but also on their configurations. In this paper, we develop a degradation model for systems where units are spatially distributed and balanced. More specifically, we consider k-out-of-n pairs:G Balanced systems. The effect of operating conditions on the units is considered and the corresponding reliability estimate is obtained. The degradation path of every unit is modeled based on collected observations of the degradation indicators and its physics or statistics degradation rate. We investigate the effect of the system configuration on the overall system reliability. We also estimate the pdf of time to a specified failure.