QM ZG528 L-3

Reliability Engineering
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Gajanand Gupta
Department of Mechanical Engineering
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BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Constant Failure Rate Model

Chapter - 3

Introduction
Models useful in describing failure process
-Exponential
- Weibull
-Normal
-Lognormal
Failure distribution having constant failure rate is called
exponential probability distribution

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Exponential Reliability Function

One of the most common failure distribution in reliability
engineering is exponential or CFR (Constant Failure
Rate)model.
Assume (t)=, t >= 0, >0
Then =(3.1)

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Exponential Reliability Function

.(3.2)
Variance
= (3.3)
Standard deviation = = MTTF
It implies that variability of failure increases as the
reliability(MTTF) increases

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Exponential Reliability Function

= = 0.368
It means component having CFR has slightly better than
one-third chance of surviving to its mean time to failure
Design life of component having exponentially distributed
failure time can be obtained as =R
Hence
.(3.4)
When R=0.5 median of distribution is obtained as i.e.
=0.69315 MTTF

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Example
A microwave transmitter has exhibited a constant failure
rate of 0.00034 failure per operating hour. Find out the
reliability over a 30 day continuous operating period.
Also find the MTTF, Tmed and design life for a reliability
of 0.95.

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Failure Modes
Complex system will fail through various means
A useful analysis approach is to separate these failures
according to mechanism or component causing failure
If is reliability function of ith failure mode then system
reliability R(t) is
.(3.6)

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Failure Modes
System hazard rate function can be derived as belowLet be the failure rate function of ith failure mode

Where ..(3.7)
This is an important result stating that hazard rate function for the system is
determined by summing the hazard rate functions of n independent failure
modes

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Example

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Failure Modes with CFR Model

If system consist of n independent, serially related
components each having constant failure rate then from
eqn 3.7

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Example

An aircraft engine consists of three modules having

constant failure rates of 0.002, 0.015 and 0.0025 failures
per operating hour. Find out the Reliability and MTTF of
aircraft engine.

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Failures on demand
Certain components that operate on cyclic basis may fail
on demand.
e.g. Light bulbs are more likely to fail when being turned on
than while operating
Let,
=Average failure rate while idle(may be zero)
=Average failure rate while operating
p= probability of failure on demand
=Average length of idle time per cycle
= Average length of operating time per cycle

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Example
An air conditioning compressor operates once for an
average time of 20 minutes each hour. While operating,
it has experienced a failure rate of 0.01 failure per
operating hour and while idle has experienced a dormant
failure rate of 0.0002 failure per idle hour. The probability
that the compressor fails on demand is 0.03.
Find the probability that the compressor will not fail over
a 24-hr period.

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Two Parameter Exponential Distribution

If failure never occurs prior to some time then is
threshold time or called as guaranteed lifetime.
This is equivalent to rewriting density function by
replacing t with t For this probability density function becomes
Reliability function will be-

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Two Parameter Exponential Distribution

Failure Rate
but mean is no longer but is shifted
distance along t axis.
Using integration by parts
The design life
R can be found as-

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Example

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Thanks

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