Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a new method to estimate the reliability of series system by using a discrete bivariate distribution. This problem is of great interest in industrial and engineering applications.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors considered the Basu–Dhar bivariate geometric distribution and a Bayesian approach with application to a simulated data set and an engineering data set.
Findings
From the obtained results of this study, the authors observe that the discrete Basu–Dhar bivariate probability distribution could be a good alternative in the analysis of series system structures with accurate inference results for the reliability of the system under a Bayesian approach.
Originality/value
System reliability studies usually assume independent lifetimes for the components (series, parallel or complex system structures) in the estimation of the reliability of the system. This assumption in general is not reasonable in many engineering applications, since it is possible that the presence of some dependence structure between the lifetimes of the components could affect the evaluation of the reliability of the system.
Estimation of the Parameters of a Bivariate Geometric Distribution
