An integral equation approach to the interval reliability of systems modelled by finite semi-Markov processes

The interval reliability for a repairable system which alternates between working and repair periods is defined as the probability of the system being functional throughout a given time interval. In this paper, a set of integral equations is derived for this dependability measure, under the assumption that the system is modelled by an irreducible finite semi-Markov process. The result is applied to the semi-Markov model of a two-unit system with sequential preventive maintenance. The method used for the numerical solution of the resulting system of integral equations is a two-point trapezoidal rule. The system of implementation is the matrix computation package MATLAB on the Apple Macintosh SE/30. The numerical results are discussed and compared with those from simulation.