Reliability in Maintenance

Source : Chapter 8 from Maintenance Engineering and Management by R.C.Mishra

Definition
Reliability: the probability that a component / system , when operating under given conditions, will perform its intended functions adequately for a specified period of time Likelihood that an equipment will not fail during its operation Two types
Inherent reliability
Associated with quality of the material and design of machine parts

Achievable reliability
Depends on factors such as maintenance and operation of the equipment

Reliability and Probability

If
R is the probability of reliable function for a specified period of time F is the probability of failure during the same period of time Then
R+F=1

Failure rate
Defined as the number of failures occurring in a unit time Denoted as Formula
No. of failures recorded Failure rate = No.of components subjected to operation X no. of hours of operation

Failure rate estimation

Using frequency distribution

Days 0-10
10-20 20-30 30-40

Mid value 5
15 25 35

Frequency 20
10 8 5

fx 100
150 200 175

Mean time to failure = fx f M = 625 /43 = 14.53

Failure rate = 1 /m = 1 /14.53 = 6.8 x 10-2 failures / day

Failure Pattern of Equipment

The Whole-Life Equipment Failure Profile

The burn-in phase (known also as infant morality, break-in , debugging): During this phase the hazard rate decrease and the failure occur due to causes such as:
Incorrect use procedures Poor test specifications Poor quality control Inadequate materials Marginal parts Over-stressed parts Incorrect installation or setup Poor manufacturing processes or tooling Incomplete final test Wrong handling or packaging Poor technical representative training Power surges

The useful life phase:

During this phase the hazard rate is constant and the failures occur randomly or unpredictably. Some of the causes of the failure include: A. Insufficient design margins B. Incorrect use environments C. Undetectable defects D. Human error and abuse E. Unavoidable failures

The wear-out phase (begins when the item passes its useful life phase):
During this phase the hazard rate increases. Some of the causes of the failure include: A. Wear due to aging. B. Inadequate or improper preventive maintenance C. Limited-life components D.Wear-out due to friction, misalignments, corrosion and creep E. Incorrect overhaul practices

Definitions
Reliability of a system is defined to be the probability that the given system will perform its required function under specified conditions for a specified period of time.

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures): Average time a system will run between failures. The MTBF is usually expressed in hours. This metric is more useful to the user than the reliability measure.

Approaches to increase the reliability of a system

Increasing reliability of a system

1. 2. 3.

Worst case design Using high quality components Strict quality control procedures

1. 2. 3.

Redundancy Typically employed Less expensive

Reliability expressions
Exponential Failure Law: Reliability of a system is often modeled as: R(t) = exp(-t) where is the failure rate expressed as percentage failures per 1000 hours or as failures per hour.

When the product t is small, R(t) = 1 - t

Relation between MTBF and the Failure rate

MTBF is the average time a system will run between failures and is given by:

MTBF = 0 R(t) dt = 0 exp(-t) dt = 1 /

In other words, the MTBF of a system is the reciprocal of the failure rate. If is the number of failures per hour, the MTBF is expressed in hours.

A simple example
A system has 4000 components with a failure rate of 0.02% per 1000 hours. Calculate and MTBF.

= (0.02 / 100) * (1 / 1000) * 4000 = 8 * 10-4 failures/hour MTBF = 1 / (8 * 10-4 ) = 1250 hours

Relation between Reliability and MTBF R(t) = (1 t) = (1 t / MTBF) Therefore,

MTBF = t / (1 R(t))

1.0 0.8 Reliability 0.6 R(t) 0.4 0.2 0 1 MTBF 2 MTBF Time t
0.36

An example A first generation computer contains 10000 components each with = 0.5%/(1000 hours). What is the period of 99% reliability?
MTBF = t / (1 R(t)) = t / (1 0.99) t = MTBF * 0.01 = 0.01 / av Where av is the average failure rate N = No. of components = 10000 = failure rate of a component = 0.5% / (1000 hours) = 0.005/1000 = 5 * 10-6 per hour Therefore, av = N = 10000 * 5 * 10-6 = 5 * 10-2 per hour Therefore, t = 0.01 / (5 * 10-2 ) = 12 minutes

Reliability for different configurations

1. Series Configuration
1 2 3 4 N

Overall reliability = Ro = R * R * R. R = RN 2. Parallel Configuration Ro = 1 (probability that all of the components fail) Ro = 1 (1 R)N
1 2

R
N

Reliability for different configurations

3. Hybrid Configuration
1 1 2 N 2

R R R

R
M

Overall reliability = Ro = ?

Maintainability
Maintainability of a system is the probability of isolating and repairing a fault in the system within a given time. Maintainability is given by: M(t) = 1 exp(-t) Where is the repair rate And t is the permissible time constraint for the maintenance action = 1/(Mean Time To Repair) = 1/MTTR M(t) = 1 exp(-t/MTTR)

Availability
Availability of a system is the probability that the system will be functioning according to expectations at any time during its scheduled working period.

Availability = System up-time / (System up-time + System down-time)

System down-time = No. of failures * MTTR System down-time = System up-time * * MTTR Therefore, Availability = System up-time / (System up-time + (System up-time * * MTTR) = 1 / (1 + ( *MTTR) Availability = MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR)

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