SYSTEM

RELIABILITY
ENN530 Slide <2>
System Reliability
SYSTEM RELIABILITY
A system is formed by a number of
components connected together. The
reliability of a system is the probability that a
device or system will operate for a given
period of time and under given operating
conditions.
There are categories of failure modes, which
are studied through two simplest systems:
series and parallel.

ENN530 Slide <3>
System Reliability
Series Reliability
A set of components, connected together so
as to form a system, is said to be in series
reliability if the failure of any one component
causes the failure of the total system (The
system can be regarded as being fault-
intolerant ).
Note: The components themselves need not
be physically or topologically in series, what
relevant is only the fact that all of them must
succeed for the system to succeed.
ENN530 Slide <4>
System Reliability
Reliability Block Diagram
Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) is used to
model the effect of component failures on
system performance.






Figure 1: Series RBD




Unit 1
Cause
Unit 2
Unit n
Effect
ENN530 Slide <5>
System Reliability
Series Reliability
What is reliability of such system?
ENN530 Slide <6>
System Reliability
Series Reliability Function
Dependent



Where R
s
represents system reliability, n is the
total number of components in a system. t
i
is time
to failure of i th item.



Independent

1 2 1 2 1 3 1 2 1 2 1
... ... ) ( } ,... {

= =
n n n s
t t t t P t t t P t t P t P t t t P R

= =
= =
n
i
i
n
i
i n s
R t P t t t P R
1 1
2 1
) ( } ,... {
ENN530 Slide <7>
System Reliability
Characteristics of Reliability function
of a series system
1. The value of the reliability function of the
system, R
s
(t), for a series configuration is less
than or equal to the minimum value of the
individual reliability function of the
constituting items, which is:

)} ( { ) (
0 ,..., 2 , 1
t R Min t R
i
i
s
=

ENN530 Slide <8>

System Reliability
Characteristics of Reliability function
of a series system
2. If
i
(t) represent the failure rate of item i, then
the system reliability of a series system can
be written as:

dx x t R
t
n
i
i s
)]} ( [ exp{ ) (
0
1

=
=
ENN530 Slide <9>
System Reliability
Example:
A system consists of four items, each of them are
necessary to maintain the required function of the
system. The time to failure distribution and their
corresponding parameter values are given in the
following table. Find the reliability of the system for
500 and 700 hours of operation.
Item Time to failure
distribution
Parameter values
Item 1 Exponential = 0.001
Item 2 Weibull = 1200 h = 3.2
Item 3 Normal = 800 h = 350
Item 4 Weibull =2000 h =1.75
ENN530 Slide <10>
System Reliability
Solution:
From the information given in the table, the reliability
function of various items can be written as:
] )
2000
( exp[ ) (
)
350
800
( ) (
] )
1200
( exp[ ) (
) 001 . 0 exp( ) (
75 . 1
4
3
2 . 3
2
1
t
t R
t
t R
t
t R
t t R
=

=
=
=
] )
2000
( exp[ ) (
)
350
800
( ) (
] )
1200
( exp[ ) (
) 001 . 0 exp( ) (
75 . 1
4
3
2 . 3
2
1
t
t R
t
t R
t
t R
t t R
=

=
=
=
ENN530 Slide <11>
System Reliability
Solution (Cont.):
Since the items are connected in series, the
reliability function of the system is given by:
] )
2000
( exp[ )
350
800
( ] )
1200
( exp[ ) 001 . 0 exp( ) (
75 . 1 2 . 3
t t t
t t R
s

=
Substituting t = 500 and 750 in the above equation,
we get:
1759 . 0 8355 . 0 5568 . 0 8003 . 0 4723 . 0 ) 750 (
4202 . 0 9154 . 0 8043 . 0 9410 . 0 6065 . 0 ) 500 (
= =
= =
R
R
ENN530 Slide <12>
System Reliability
Failure Rate of series configuration with n items
) ( ) (
1
t t
n
i
i s
=
=
) exp(
) (
t
l Exponentia
i i

) ) ( exp( ) (
) (
1
i i
i i i
i
t t
Weibull

1
1
) )( ( ) (

=

=
i
i
n
i
i
i
s
t
t

} ) (
2
1
exp{
2
1
) (
2
i
i
i
t
Normal

) ( / ) ( ) (
1
i
i
n
i
i s
t
t f t

=
Probability density
function of i-th item, f
i
(t)
Failure rate of the system,

s
(t)
ENN530 Slide <13>
System Reliability
Mean time to failure (MTTF) of a
series system
The mean time to failure, MTTF, of a series
configuration, denoted by MTTF
s
, can be written
as:
dt t R dt R MTTF
i
n
i
s s
) (
0
1
0


=

= =
ENN530 Slide <14>
System Reliability
Characteristics of MTTF
s
of series
system
The mean time to failure of a system with series
RBD will be less than the mean time to failure of
any its constituting items, where MTTF
i
denote
the mean time to failure of the item i.
1.



2. For complex repairable systems, MTTF
s

represents the mean time to first failure
} {
0 ,... 2 , 1
i
i
s
MTTF Min MTTF
=

ENN530 Slide <15>

System Reliability
Example:
A system consists of three items connected in
series. The time-to-failure distribution and their
corresponding parameter values are given at the
following table. Find the mean time to failure of
the system. Compare the value of MTTF
s
with
mean time to failure of individual items.
Item Distribution Parameter Values
Item 1 Weibull
1
= 10,
1
=2.5
Item 2 Exponential = 0.2
Item 3 Weibull
2
= 20,
2
= 3
ENN530 Slide <16>
System Reliability
Solution:
Mean time to failure of the system is given by:
dt
t
t
t
) ) ( exp( ) exp( ) ( exp(
2 1
2
0
1

dt t R MTTF
i
i
s
) (
0
3
1

=
=
hr dt
t
t
t
48 . 3 ) )
20
( exp( ) 2 . 0 exp( )
10
( exp(
3 5 . 2
0
= =

Compare with MTTF for Item1: 8.87 hr, Item2: 5 hr,

Item3:17.86 hr. Note that the formula can only be
evaluated using numerical integration.
ENN530 Slide <17>
System Reliability
Consider a series system of n
components, each has a constant failure
rate
since:





Constant failure rate in series
reliability

=
=
n
i
i s
R R
1
] ) ... ( exp[ ) (
), exp(
2 1
t t R
then t R
and
n s
i i

+ + + =
=
ENN530 Slide <18>
System Reliability
Constant failure rate in series
reliability
The systems failure rate is:



MTTF:

=
=
n
i
i s
1

=

=

=
n
i
i
s
s
1
1 1
ENN530 Slide <19>
System Reliability
Example
The pump system in Slide 5: Assume failure
rate of the motor is 4.0X10
-6
/hr, the gear box is
3.2X10
-6
/hr, and the pump is 9.8X10
-6
/hr.
What is system failure rate?


At what probability the system can operate for
at least 1000 hours?
6 6
3
1
10 17 10 ) 8 . 9 2 . 3 4 (

=
= + + = =

i
i s

983 . 0 ) ( = =
t
s
s
e t R

ENN530 Slide <20>
System Reliability
A set of components are involved in a system. The
system fails only when all components have failed.








Figure 2: Parallel RBD
Such a system is regarded as being fault-tolerant .
Parallel Reliability
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit n
Effect
Cause
ENN530 Slide <21>
System Reliability
Pump system
ENN530 Slide <22>
System Reliability
Parallel Reliability Function
} ... {
2 1 n s
t t t P R + + + =

=
= =
n
i
i n s
t F t F t F t F F
1
2 1
) ( ) ( )... ( ) (

= =
= = =
n
i
i
n
i
i s s
t R t F F R
1 1
)} ( 1 { 1 ) ( 1 1
ENN530 Slide <23>
System Reliability
A limit switch has a probability of failure of
17.8% over a one year period. If two switches
are installed in parallel, what is the probability
that both fail in a one year period.

Fs= F
1
xF
2
= .178 x .178 = .032 = 3.2%
Thus the system is much more reliable with two
switches.

With three switches, Fs=0.178
3
= 0.56%.

Parallel Systems - Example
ENN530 Slide <24>
System Reliability
Characteristics of a parallel system
1. The system reliability, R
s
(t), is more than reliability
of the any of the consisting items. That is,
)} ( { ) (
,..., 1
t R Max t R
i
n i
s
=

)} ( { ) (
,..., 1
t R Max t R
i
n i
s
=

If
i
(t) represents the failure rate of item i, then
the reliability function of a parallel configuration
can be written as:
)] ) ( exp( 1 [ 1 ) (
0
1
dt t t R
t
i
n
i
s

=
=

ENN530 Slide <25>
System Reliability
Example:
A fly-by-wire aircraft has four flight control
system electronics (FCSE) connected in
parallel. The time-to-failure of FCSE can be
represented by Weibull distribution with scale
parameter = 2800 and = 2.8. Find the
reliability of flight control system for 1000
hours of operation.
ENN530 Slide <26>
System Reliability
Solution:
Reliability function for a parallel system with four
identical items is given by:
4
4
1
)] ( 1 [ 1 )] ( 1 [ 1 ) ( t R t R t R
i
i
s
= =
=
9455 . 0 ) )
2800
1000
( exp( ) ) ( exp( ) (
8 . 2
= = =

t
t R
999991 . 0 ] 9455 . 0 1 [ 1 ) 1000 (
4
= =
s
R
Where R(t) is the reliability function of each item. For
t=1000, R(t) is given by:
Thus, the reliability of flight control system for 1000
hours of operation is given by:
ENN530 Slide <27>
System Reliability
Failure Rate of a parallel system
n
i
i
n
j
i
n
j i i
j
s
t R
t F t f
t
1
1
, 1
)] ( 1 [ 1
)} ( ) ( {
) (
=
=
=


=

=
=
=


=
n
i
i
n
j
i
n
j i i
j
s
t R
t F t f
t
1
1
, 1
)] ( 1 [ 1
)} ( ) ( {
) (
Where, f
i
(t) is the probability density function
of item i
ENN530 Slide <28>
System Reliability
Example:
A fly-by-wire aircraft has four flight control
system electronics (FCSE) connected in
parallel. The time-to-failure of FCSE can be
represented by Weibull distribution with scale
parameter = 2800 and = 2.8. Find the failure
rate of the system at time t = 100.
ENN530 Slide <29>
System Reliability
Solution:
Since all the four items are identical, the failure
rate of the system can be written as:
4
3
)] ( [ 1
)] ( [ ) ( 4
) (
t F
t F t f
t
s

=
) ) ( exp( ) ( ) (
1

t t
t f =

) ) ( exp( 1 ) (

t
t F =
Substituting t = 100, we get
s
(t) = 8.0 x 10
-8
Where:
ENN530 Slide <30>
System Reliability
MTTF
s
of a parallel system
The mean time to failure system can be written as:
dt t R dt R MTTF
i
n
i
s s
)]} ( 1 [ 1 {
0
1
0
= =


=

ENN530 Slide <31>

System Reliability
Constant failure rate in parallel
reliability
For each component, failure rate is a constant.
If the system has two units, we assume that
the failure of the two units are independent.
Assume time-to-failure distribution of
component i is exponential with mean
i
. Then
MTTFs is given by:

dt t dt R MTTF
i
n
i
i
n
i
s
)]} exp( 1 [ 1 {
0
1
0
1
= =


=

=
ENN530 Slide <32>
System Reliability
For particular values of n, we can simplify the
equation to derive the expression for the MTTF
s
as following:
Assume n = 2 (Two components):
2 1 2 1
1 1 1
+
+ =
s
MTTF
Assume n = 3 (Three components) :
3 2 1 3 2 3 1 2 1 3 2 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
+ +
+
+

+
+ + =
s
MTTF
ENN530 Slide <33>
System Reliability
REDUNDANCY
Systems in which some components may fail
without causing system failure are fault
tolerant . To achieve this, some measure of
hardware redundancy must be introduced. There
are two main types of redundancy: active and
passive (or standby) redundancy.
In Active redundancy, two or more components
are placed in parallel reliability. Load is normally
shared between the components. If one
component fails, then the remaining units carry
the full load.
In Passive (Standby) redundancy, one component
carries full load. If this component fails, another
standby component (not necessarily identical) is
switched on to take the place.
ENN530 Slide <34>
System Reliability
Pump system
ENN530 Slide <35>
System Reliability
Active Redundancy
System failure function:


a
b
[ ][ ]
[ ] [ ] [ ][ ] ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( 1
) ( 1 ) ( 1
) ( ) ( ) (
t R t R t R t R
t R t R
t F t F t F
b a b a
b a
b a s
+ =
=
=
ENN530 Slide <36>
System Reliability
Active Redundancy
Reliability function:


If a and b are constant failure rate
components, what is Reliability function?


Is the resulted system a constant failure rate
system?
) ( ) ( ) ( ) (
) ( 1 ) (
t R t R t R t R
t F t R
b a b a
s s
+ =
=
No
t t t
s
b a b a
e e e t R
) (
) (
+
+ =
ENN530 Slide <37>
System Reliability
m-out-of-n Good:
In some cases, m out of n identical units must
stay up for the system to be operational.
R
s
(m,n,p) System reliability when there are
n number of components in a system, the
system is considered being functioning
properly if m or more units (m, m+1, m+3,.,
n-1,n) are functioning. Let p be the probability
that a unit is functioning. The probability of
exactly m functioning units (out of n):
( )
m n m
p p
m
n
p n m p

= ) 1 ( , ,
ENN530 Slide <38>
System Reliability
Therefore, the system reliability:
( )

=
=
n
m r
s
p n r p p n m R ) , , ( , ,

=
n
m r
r n r
p p
r
n
) 1 (
ENN530 Slide <39>
System Reliability
Example:
A system has 4 components, what is the reliability
of the system being operational with at least 3
units being operational:

=
4
3
4
) 1 (
3
4
r
r r
p p
4 3
0 4 3 4 3
3 4
) 1 (
4
4
) 1 (
3
4
p p
p p p p
=

=

ENN530 Slide <40>
System Reliability
Standby Redundancy
1
2

d t R f t R R
t
s
) ( ) ( ) (
2
0
1 1
+ =

=
ENN530 Slide <41>
System Reliability
Standby Redundancy

R1(t) the reliability of unit 1 at time t
R2(t - ) the reliability of the unit 2 after it
started to operate at time
F1(t) the pdf for the time to failure of unit 1()
ENN530 Slide <42>
System Reliability
Constant Failure Rate
Special case 1:
Time to failure distribution of all units follows an
exponential distribution
t
e t R
1
) (
1

=
t
e t R
2
) (
2

=

d e e e
d e e e t R
t
t t t
t
t
t
sb

=


=

+ =
+ =
0
) (
1
) (
0
1
2 1 2 1
2 1 1
) (
ENN530 Slide <43>
System Reliability
) (
) 1 (
1 2 1
2 1
2
1
2 1
1
) (
2 1
1
t t t
t
t
t
e e e
e
e
e

+ =

+ =
We assume that switch is perfect, no standby
failure.
Constant Failure Rate (Cont.)
ENN530 Slide <44>
System Reliability
Series Parallel system
)] ( 1 ( 1 [
,
1 1
j i
m
i
n
j
s
x R R =
= =
R(x
i,j
) Reliability of component i in sub-system j
n = no. of sub-system, j = 1,2,..,n; i=1,m.
m
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
..
m
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
m
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1 2 n
ENN530 Slide <45>
System Reliability
Special case: all units are identical.
R(x
i,j
) = p
R
s
= [ 1 (1-p)
m
]
n
Example:
n = 3, m = 2
R
s
= [ 1 (1-p)
2
]
3
If p = 0.85, R
s
= 0.934007
ENN530 Slide <46>
System Reliability
Increasing System Reliability
During design stage
Simplifying the system
Use better quality components
Improve environments, e.g. use cooling fans,
reduce vibration, etc.
Use Fault-Tolerance in the system
ENN530 Slide <47>
System Reliability
Increasing System Reliability
During development and production stage
Design improvement
Burn-in components or system
Improve quality control during manufacturing
Use of preventive maintenance
use of corrective maintenance

Any Questions?