On some conditional characteristics of hazard rate processes induced by external shocks

Stochastic failure models for systems under randomly variable environment (dynamic environment) are often described using hazard rate process. In this paper, we consider hazard rate processes induced by external shocks affecting a system that follow the nonhomogeneous Poisson process. The sample paths of these processes monotonically increase. However, the failure rate of a system can have completely different shapes and follow, e.g., the upside-down bathtub pattern. We describe and study various 'conditional properties' of the models that help to analyze and interpret the shape of the failure rate and other relevant characteristics.