M.E.

359 Problem Set #5

Due Tuesday. May 19, 2015

[1&2] A device has a constant failure rate of = 0.05/day.

a. The mean time to failure is MTTF = ________
b. If a large number of these devices underwent a reliability test, how many days would
you expect to wait for half of them to fail? __________
c. What fraction of the devices would you expect to fail during the first day? __________
d. How many devices would you need to test to have a 90% probability of obtaining at
least one failure during the first day __________
e. If you tested 10 such devices what is the probability that two or more would fail during
the first day? __________
f. If two of the devices are placed in series, the MTTF = ___________
Solution
a. MTTF 1 20 days.
b. R(t ) e 0.05t 0.5, t 13.86 14 days.
c. F (1) 1 e 0.05 0.04877 .
d. 1 P (no failure) 1 e 0.05n 0.9, n 46.05 47 .
e. 1 P (no failure) P (1 failure) 1 e 0.0510 10e 0.059 1 e 0.05 0.0825 .
f.

R (t ) e 2 t , MTTF 1 2 10 days.

[3] 6.2

Solution

1 dR
0.04 0.016t .
R dt
(b) R (t ) exp 0.04t 0.008t 2 0.9, t 1.91 .
(a) (t )

[4] 6.4

Solution
1 dR
2

.
R dt
t 10
(b) Decreasing.

(a) (t )

[5] 6.32

Solution
1
2

(a) 0.5, t 6, t 3, P n 3 1 t t e t 0.423 .

2

1
1
2
3

(b) P n 4 1 t t t e t 0.647 .
2
6