ME0068 – TQM and

Reliability Engineering
Unit IV – RELIABILITY
E. Vijayaragavan
Assistant Professor (Selection Grade)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
[email protected]
+919884214710
 Syllabus
RELIABILITY
Definition – Probabilistic nature of failures –
Mean failure rate – Meantime between
failures – Hazard rate – Hazard models,
Weibull model – System reliability
improvement – Redundancy – Series –
Parallel and Mixed configurations.
Session Plan
 Reliability
Reliability is a characteristic of an item,
expressed by the probability that the item will
perform its required function under given
conditions for a stated time interval.

Reliability R(t) = Number of survivors at time “t”

Number of items tested at time “t=0”

R(0) = 1 = 100%
 Elements of Reliability
• Probability
• Time
• Performance – functional failure & reliability
failure
• Operating condition – amount of usage and
environment
 Types of Reliability
• Inherent reliability – determined by the design
of the product or process

• Achieved reliability – observed during use

 Risk from the producer’s point of view
• Competition  competitive advantage to
producers
• Customer requirements  to meet the
maintenance costs low
• Warranty and service costs  financial burden
to the manufacturer
• Liability costs  liable for the consequences
of failures in product performance
 Risks of poor reliability to the customer
• Safety  results in accidents and death , huge
loss of human life
• Inconvenience  result in delays and cause
frustration to customers , cripple the entire
business
• Cost  willing to pay a premium for products
of high reliability
 Two perspectives of reliability
• How and why products fail, require clear
understanding of the randomness of failure
patterns
• Develop effective maintenance polices for
equipment
 Objectives of reliability engineering
• To apply engineering knowledge to prevent or
reduce the likelihood or frequency of failures;
• To identify and correct the causes of failure
that do occur;
• To determine ways of coping with failures that
do occur;
• To apply methods of estimating the likely
reliability of new designs, and for analyzing
reliability data.
 Why is Reliability important?
Poor reliability can have implications for:
– Safety
– Competitiveness
– Profit margins
– Cost of repair and maintenance
– Delays further up supply chain
– Reputation
– Good will
 Failure
Failure is the loss of an intended function of a
device under stated conditions.
 Mode
 Cause
 Effect
 Mechanism
 Reasons for failure
• The product is not fit for purpose or more
specifically the design is inherently incapable.
• The item may be overstressed in some way.
• Failures can be caused by wear-out.
• Failures might be caused by variation.
• Wrong specifications may cause failures.
• Misuse of the item may cause failure.
• Items are designed for a specific operating
environment and if they are then used outside this
environment then failure can occur.
 Failure rate λ
Probability of a component failing in one (small)
unit of time

NF = number of failures in a small time interval “Δt”

NS = number of survivors at time “t”

Failure rate λ = NF / (NS x t)

200 surviving components after 400 seconds, and 8
components fail over the next 10 seconds, the failure
rate after 400 seconds is given by ___.
Answer: 0.4%
 Bath tub curve

Would you expect the bath tub curve to apply to a

car? What about a human being?
Probability density function
Cumulative Distribution Function
Survival function
 Exponential Distribution
When an item is subject to failures that occur in random intervals
and the expected number of failures is the same for long periods
of time then the distribution of failures is said to fit an
exponential distribution. The PDF, CDF and survival function is
given as:

The exponential distribution

applies when the failure rate is
constant
 Weibull Distribution
This distribution takes account of a non-constant
hazard function. The Survival function is given
by:

• η is the scale parameter or characteristic life

• β is the shape parameter and
• β = 1, constant hazard function
• β<1, decreasing hazard function
• β>1, increasing hazard function
 Example of a Non-Constant
Failure Rate Curve: The
“Bathtub” Curve
Failure Rate

1 3

Early Life Wear-Out

Region Constant Failure Rate Region
Region

0 Time t
 Life time failure rate
Higher rates both at the early and towards the
end of the product’s life.
 Infant Mortality or Burn-In:

According to MIL-STD-883C, burn-in

Failure Rate

1
is a test performed to screen or
eliminate marginal components with
inherent defects or defects resulting
from manufacturing process.

Early Life
Region

0 Time t
 Infant mortality
Because of bad use , the equipment breaks
down.
“ run –in “ or “ burn –in “ , teething ( start up )
problems

Firms provide 90 days warranty

“ infant mortality “ – fragile at this point of

their life.
 Maintenance
An important assumption for
effective maintenance is that
components will eventually have an
Hazard Rate

Increasing Failure Rate. 3

Maintenance can return the
component to the Constant Failure
Region.
2

Wear-Out
Constant Failure Rate Region
Region

0 Time t
 Normal failure
Failure rate pretty constants and low.
 Terminal Mortality (Wear-Out)

Components will eventually enter

the Wear-Out Region where the
Hazard Rate

Failure Rate increases, even with an 3

effective Maintenance Program.
You need to be able to detect the
onset of Terminal Mortality
2

Wear-Out
Constant Failure Rate Region
Region

0 Time t
 Wear – out failure

Failure rate starts to increase again as parts

become used or worn out and eventually fail

 Mean Time To Failure (MTTF)
• Average time an item may be expected to
function before failure.
• Basic measure of reliability for non-repairable
systems.
• It is the mean time expected until the first
failure of a piece of equipment.
• If four items have lasted 3,000 hours, 4000,
hours, 4000 hours and 5,000 hours, the MTTF
is 16,000/4 or 4,000 hours.
 Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
• Reliability term used to provide the amount of
failures per million hours for a product.
• This is the most common inquiry about a
product’s life span
• Important in the decision-making process of the
end user.
• MTBF is more important for industries and
integrators than for consumers.
-1
MTBF = (λ1+ λ2+ λ3+ … +λn) , λ – Failure rate
Consider an item which has failed, say, 5 times over
a period of 15,000 hours. Then MTBF is 15,000/5 =
3,000 hours.
 Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
• Time needed to repair a failed hardware
module. In an operational system, repair
generally means replacing a failed hardware
part.

Failure In Time (FIT)

• It is another way of reporting MTBF.
• FIT reports the number of expected failures per
one billion hours of operation for a device.
 Redundancy
In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of
critical components or functions of a system with
the intention of increasing reliability of the
system, usually in the form of a backup or fail-
safe.
The following are the methods for introducing
redundancy in to a system for improving
reliability.
• Element redundancy
• Unit redundancy
 Element Redundancy
Reliability of the system will be much better due
to the presence of redundant element and proper
operation of one element is sufficient for the
successful operation of the system.
 Unit Redundancy
To improve the reliability of the system, another
similar system is connected either in series or
parallel to the existing one is called the concept
of unit redundancy.
 Types of unit redundancy
• Active redundancy:
Redundant system consisting of two or more
components connected in parallel and both
components were operating simultaneously is
called active redundancy.
• Stand by redundancy:
In case of stand by redundancy the alternate
means of performing the function is not operated
until it is needed.
 Importance of probability
• Determining that probability when the product
consists of a number of independent
components requires the use of rules of
probability for independent events.
• Independent events have no relation to the
occurrence or nonoccurrence of each other.
 Rules of probability
• Whether a given product will operate
successfully.
• Let Pi = probability that event i occurs, i = 1,
2, 3, . . .
• Rule 1:
• If two or more events are independent and
“success” is defined as the occurrence of all of
the events, then the probability of success Ps is
equal to the product of the probabilities of the
events occurring, i.e., Ps = P1 × P2 × . . .
 Rules of probability
• Suppose a room has two lamps, but to have
adequate light both lamps must work (success)
when turned on. One lamp has a probability of
working of .90, and the other has a probability
of working of .80. Fins the probability that
both will work.

Answer 0.90 × 0.80 = 0.72.

Component Reliability
 Rule 2
• If two or more events are independent and
“success” is defined as occurrence of at least
one of the events, then the probability of
success Ps is equal to 1 – probability that none
of the events will occur, i.e., 1 - (1 - P1)(1 - P2)(1 - P3). .
Simplifying,
Ps = P1 +(1 - P1) P2 + (1 - P1) (1 - P2) P3 + . . .
 Rule 2
• There are two lamps in a room. When turned
on, one has probability of working of 0.90 and
the other has probability of working of 0.80.
Only a single lamp is needed to light the room
for success. Fins the probability of success.

Answer: Ps = 1 – (1 – 0.90)(1 – 0.80) = 0.98.

 Example
• Three lamps have probabilities of 0.90, 0.80,
and 0.70 of lighting when turned on. Only one
lighted lamp is needed for success.
Then, probability of success:
Ps = 1 – (1 – .90)(1 – .80)(1 – .70) = .994.
 Example
• Determine the reliability of the system shown
below.

The system reliability is, then, the product of these

component reliabilities: 0.98 × 0.99 × 0.996 =
0.966