On the mean residual life of a k-out-of-n:G system with a single cold standby component

The concept of mean residual life is one of the most important characteristics that has been widely used in dynamic reliability analysis. It is a useful tool for investigating ageing properties of technical systems. In this paper, we define and study three different mean residual life functions for k-out-of-n:G system with a single cold standby component. In particular, we obtain explicit expressions for the corresponding functions using distributions of order statistics. We also provide some stochastic ordering results associated with the lifetime of a system. We illustrate the results for various lifetime distributions. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.