Previous Lecture:

Confidence Interval for Weibull plot

Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness of fit test
Suspension and censored data (small sample
size)
WeibullSoft demo
Appendix 2 Jardine book

Todays Lecture:

Analyzing failure data with suspension

Analyzing Grouped Failure data with multiple
suspensions

In practice, not every item that is observed is

tested to failure.
The test may be terminated for reasons other
than failure

Such as breakdown
Losing track of test item
Quarantining of the test site
Reaching the predetermined time limit for the test

When only partial information about an items

lifetime is available, the information is known
as censored or suspended data.

Suspended data will not cause complications

in Weibull analysis if all of them are longer
than the observed failure times.
If failure times are longer than one or more of
the suspension times, then a special
procedure is required.
Thus, in the latter case, suspended data are
handled by assigning an average order
number to each failure time.

Consider testing of 4 motors.

Data with a suspended item
Failure or suspension

Hours on Test

Failure (F1)

43

Suspension (S1)

55

Failure (F2)

74

Failure (F3)

98

First failed at F1 = 43 hrs ,

At 55 hours, an item was removed from the test
before its failure (it was suspended).
Two more failures at at F2 = 74 and at F3 = 98 hrs.

If the suspended motor had continued to failure, one

of the following outcomes would have resulted.

Three Scenarios for failure of the

suspended item
Case 1
F1
S1 -> Fail
F2
F3

Case 2
F1
F2
S1 -> Fail
F3

Case 3
F1
F2
F3
S1 -> Fail

The suspended motor could have failed in any one of

those positions, which will produce a particular
ordering of the failure times.
The average position or order number will be
assigned to each failure time for plotting.
7

In this example, the first observed failure will

always be in the first position.
Thus m = 1

As for the second failure there are two

possibilities that it could have an order number
m = 2, and one possibility that it would have
order number of m = 3.
The average order number is

The mean order number of the third failure is

determined by similar analysis
Once these mean order numbers are found, it can
be used to calculate the median rank.
Using Benards approximation the median rank
for the second failure F2 is

Similarly the median rank for a no integer order

number can obtained from the median rank
table for sample size n 4 by interpolation.
9

Once the data is gathered, it can then be plotted on

Weibull paper.
Using the procedure described earlier, to find the mean
positions of failure times when there are multiple
suspensions is slow or complicated and therefore
inefficient.
Fortunately, the mean order numbers of failure times
intermixed with suspension can be determined by use of
the following formula:

1
1

Time to
fail (ti)

43

Mean
order
rank (i)
1

74
98

2.33
3.67

F(ti)
i 0 .3
.159
4 0 .4
0.461
0.766
10

1
1

Where
= current mean order number
= previous mean order number
n = total sample size for failure and censorings
= number of survivors prior to the failure or
suspension under consideration.
E.g.

11

In a life test program, these failure times were

recorded: 31, 39, 57, 65, 70, 105, and 110
hours.
The other items in the sample were removed at
the following times without failure (suspension
times): 64, 75, 76, 87, 88, 84, 101, 109, and
130 hours.
Determine the mean order numbers for the
fourth to seventh failures, and plot the Weibull
analysis.
12

Even though this sample has 16 items, only 7

failures were observed.
To prepare for a Weibull analysis, the data is
reorganized as shown in the table.

13

The mean order numbers for the fourth to seventh

are calculated as such:
Consider the fourth failure (F4), number of
survivors prior to the event, k4 = 12.

=3+

= 3 + 1.08 = 4.08

Since theres no suspension between F4 and F5,

the same increment of 1.08 can be applied to
determine m5. m5 = m4 + 1.08 = 4.08 + 1.08 =
5.16. F6 and F7 are calculated in a similar manner.

14

15

16

When there is abundant failure data on an item, the

information can be grouped into separate classes
to ease processing.
Suppose that each class interval is of length W.
Within an individual class, it could have many
failures and suspensions

17

Hazard rate at the center of the class can be estimated

Where

the average number of items in the class interval

Where A is the number of operating items at the beginning

of the class interval
F is the number of failures in the class interval
C is the number of suspensions in the class interval

18

When the average hazard rate for each class interval is

known, the cumulative distribution function can be
estimated by the formula
1

Where

exp

is the cumulative hazard function

Since we`re working with a grouped data, the cumulative

hazard function takes the form

19

Consider the failure data of a sugar feeder

given in the following table. Plot the failure
data on Weibull paper.

20

The first four columns of the table are the failure data of the
sugar feeder. The other columns of the table are calculations
for estimating F(t) for individual class intervals.
The figure below shows the calculation for the first class
interval.

21

22

The values of F(t) is calculated and can be

plotted on the Weibull paper. The value of F(t)
must be plotted at the time corresponding to
the end of the interval because it is the
cumulative value for the whole interval.
To plot F(t) at the mid-point of the interval is
wrong because it underestimates the Weibull
distribution.

23

24