ISE 330 Measuring Reliability MTTF is the mean time to failure MTBF is the mean time between failures

MTTF and MTBF are often denoted with the letter m or the Greek theta. Probability Density Function (p.d.f) Cumulative Distribution Function (c.d.f) Censored Data There are four types of failure data 1. Exact failure times, in which the exact failure time is known. 2. Right-censored data, in which it is known only the failure happened or would have happened after particular time. This occurs if an item is still functioning when the test is concluded. 3. Left-censored data, in which it is known only that the failure happened before a particular time. This occurs if the items are not checked prior to being tested but are periodically examined and a failure is observed at the first examination. The reliability function R(t) = the cumulative number of survivors up to any time t, expressed as a fraction of the original total quantity. The failure is a conditional probability with r(t)dt being the probability that an item fails during the interval given that it has survived to time t. Product life-cycle and costs Reliability engineers identify three stages in the lifecycle of a product 1. The first stage is referred to variously as the early failure stage, the infant mortality stage, or the decreasing failure stage. The failure that occur during the early failure stage are usually associated with the manufacturing rather than design. Examples of causes of failure include inadequate test or burn0in time, poor quality control, poor handling, weak material or components, and human error in fabrication or assembly. Ideally, all these failures should occur in-house and be corrected before the customer takes possession. 2. The second stage is called the constant failure rate stage, the random causes stage, ot the useful life stage. During the useful life stage the failure rate is approximately constant. Note that the failure rate is not necessarily zero. During this stage the failures have random causes and cant usually be assignment to production problems. Reducing the failure rate during this stage usually requires changes in product design. 3. The third stage is called the wear-out, fatigue stage, or the increasing failure rate stage. The wear-out stage is characterized by an increasing failure rate over time. These failures are caused by product or component fatigue. Improvement can be done 1. Improve the early failure phase by shortening its length and giving it a flatter slope. This is usually accomplished by studying the processes used by the company and its suppliers to see where tighter control of process parameters is needed

2. Improve the useful life stage by decreasing the constant failure rate. Failure data are studied to determine the most frequent failure types. Reliability engineers works with product/process engineers to find changes that will decrease the failure rate. 3. Improve the wear-out stage by delaying its onset and flattening the curve. The timing and steepness of the failure rate curve is generally a function of design. However, the wear-out phase can often be postponed somewhat and its slope reduced by more aggressive preventive maintenance and component replacement schedules. Block Diagrams Advantages: Predicting system reliability using reliability predictions for the various subsystems. The math model can be use to assist in making changes to the system for reliability improvement. The model can be used to identify weak links in the system and to indicate where reliability improvement activities should be introduced. Series System The failure of any subsystem will result in the failure of the system. System modeling will assist in identifying reliability problems and implementation of a reliability improvement effort. Parallel System If a subsystem fails, system success can be accomplished with the successful operation of a remaining subsystems. The system fails only when all the redundant subsystem fail.