A continuous extension of a load-share reliability model based on a condition of the residual lifetime conservation

The reliability behaviour of systems under changeable load is studied in the paper. A case when the load changes continuously in time is considered, i.e., a continuous extension of the discrete load-share reliability models is proposed. The main assumption used in the paper is the so-called condition of the residual lifetime conservation of the system, which is equivalent to the condition of continuity of the reliability function. Special cases of the exponential and Weibull probability distributions of time to failure are provided in detail. Various numerical examples are provided to illustrate the reliability behaviour of systems under the continuously changeable load. [Received 4 October 2011; Revised 11 November 2012; Accepted 11 November 2012]