RELIABILITY AND MAINTANANCE

RELIABILTY
Reliability is the ability of a product to perform its intended functions to the required
specification in a specified time t. The reliability of a population of products over a
specified time t, has the following parameters of measure.
 Probability of survival (Ps)
 The failure rate ()
 The ratio of failure rate ()
 The mean time before failure (To)
 The mean time between failures (tm )
Reliability is applicable to all engineering and sciences. All types of machines need
reliable operation, engineers are making attempts to achieve maximum reliability at
the very low cost. Reliability concerns of all those in industries, governments,
business, engineering and defense. The complexity, sophistication and automation
require the reliability applications. The reliability is needed for electrical engineering
because the electrical systems have greater failures. The large systems require
reliability is using probability method of testing the productions, quality and
satisfaction. The probability method saves time, money and labor. For example one
needs to test one million of electric lamps, the time, money and labor involve will be
very large. Therefore to test a lot of 100 lamps from the population of one million
will be advantageous and will save time and money.

19.0.1 PROBABILITY OF SURVIVAL

This is the probability that a given product will perform its intended functions during
a continuos operation for a given time t without a single failure. This parameter
characterizes both the parts and the system they make up.
Ps(t)

1 Point of certainty

Point of impossibility

The probability of survival is calculated by the designer who will then select the
optimal structure and circuit depending on the probability and construction.
Ps = Nt
No

Where Nt = The number of items still operating after time t.

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 No = Population of products on test.

19.0.2 FAILURE RATE ()

This is the rate at which failures occur during an interval of time t, as function of the
total time interval length. It is used widely to evaluate the reliability of a component.
The failure rate as shown below has three district regions.

(t)

3
1
2
t

5 55 100

REGION 1
This region is known as the wear in, shock-down or infant-motality period. The
failure rate is highest but drop down very fast. This is due to the hidden defects in the
components used in the system manufacture. This period is usually 5% of the
equipment useful lifetime.

REGION 2
This period is known as the useful life or normal life period. Here the failure rate is
minimum because the items with factory defective components are no longer in
service.

REGION 3
The wear out period, the failure rate rises due to the aging and wear of components.

19.0.3 THE RATIO OF FAILURE RATE ()

This is the number of devices N, failing during a time interval t, divided by the
total number of devices on test

(t) = N
Not
This expresses the rate of failure as a function of the total number of devices. The
plot of  v/s time is shown below.

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 (t)

3
1
2
t

t1 t2 t3

As in the case of failure rate, the curve has three regions showing.
(a) The wear in period
(b) The useful life period
(c) The wear out period

Beyond these regions at time t, there is a sharp drop of  because the devices
remaining of test have become smaller in number and therefore the ratio of failure
rate drops. As a general rule components and equipment are not allowed to reach the
end of the useful period. Usually preventive maintenance is done at the beginning of
the wear out period by replacing components and extending the useful life period.

19.0.4 THE MEAN TIME BEFORE FAILURE (t0)

It is the sum of the failure time of each device divided by the number of devices on
test.

MTBF = t1+t2+t3+…………..t0
N0
Where ti is the time each device operated before failure.
No is the number of devices on test.

19.0.5 THE MEAN TIME BETWEEN FAILURES

It is the average of failure time of two adjacent failures.

tm = t1+t2
2
t1 and t2 is the time each device operated before failure.

EXAMPLE
A test was made on electrical resistors to find their reliability of the specified
resistors. In 10hrs 1000 resistors were failures. The record was made hourly as
follows.

t 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
f 80 120 100 130 70 120 80 140 60 100
Find the failure rate, mean time between failure and mean time before failure.

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SOLUTION
The failure rate  = f = 1000 = 100 res/hr
T 10
Mean time between failure tm = 1 = 1 = 0.01hr
 100
Mean time before failure (MTBF)
=(1/n) iI = t1+t2+t3+……………tn = 10 = 0.01hr = 
n 1000

IMPROVEMENT OF RELIABILITY AND QUALITY

Factor affecting the reliability and quality of electronic equipment may be placed into
three main groups.
(a) Design factors
(b) Production factors
(c) Service factors

DESIGN FACTORS
Good reliability may be achieved in design by choice of reliable circuit
configurations. The design must also ensure protection against external and internal
influences, e.g. short-circuit, temperature raise, etc.

PRODUCTION FACTOR
Inspection of the incoming material and components for defects is of vital
importance. Proper planning of the manufacturing steps, testing and alignment
improves the reliability and quality control as required.

SERVICE FACTOR
Service factor are generally classified into two groups, namely:
1) OBJECTIVE FACTOR
These are factors that depend upon the nature of place in which the equipment is
going to be put in service. These may include ambient temperature, relative
humidity, exposure to corrosive atmosphere, solar radiation, mechanical loading
etc.
2) SUBJECTIVE FACTOR
These include the skills and knowledge of the attending personal and the
organization of both preventive and corrective maintenance.

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RELIABILITY OF SYSTEMS CONNECTED IN
SERIES
Many systems work in series. Simple example is the connection of various lamps in
series. If one of the lamps fails, no one lamp will work and there will be a complete
failure. Furnace, boiler, chimney, superheater, turbine and generators are connected
in series.

R1 R2 R3 R4

F B C S

The total reliability R will be.

R = R1R2R3R4……..Rn = Rn or
R = e-1te-2te-3t……….e-nt

When 1 = 2= 3 =………….n =  Then R = e-nt

The meantime between failures will be

m = 1 + 1 + 1 …………..1
1  2 3 n
If 1 = 2 = 3……….n = 

m = n
1

EXAMPLE
At a generating station of electrical energy furnace reliability Rf = 0.6, boiler
reliability Rb = 0.8, reliability of chimney Rc = 0.9, superheater reliability Rs = 0.9,
turbine reliability Rt = 0.85 and generator reliability Rg = 0.89. find the total
reliability of the power station. If the failure rate of each unit is given below, find the
total failure rate of the system and mean time between failures.

 f b s g c t
Value x10-3 8 12 4 2 15 3

Find the reliability after 100hrs.

SOLUTION

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R = 0.6x0.8x0.9x0.9x0.85x0.89 = 0.3
 = 10-3(8+15+12+4+3+12) = 0.054
The mean time between failures will be
m = 1 = 1 = 18.52hrs
 0.054
The power system is expected to operate without failure for 18.52hrs
R = e-t = e-0.054x100 = 0.0045 = 0.45%

19.3 RELIABILITY OF SYSTEM CONNECTED IN

PARALLEL
Parallel connection is redundancy technique to obtain high reliability. The cost of
additional component is balanced by increase reliability.

R1

In Out
R2

R3

The total reliability will be

R = 1-(1-R1)(1-R2)(1-R3)
= 1- F1F2F3
Where F is unreliability of system.

EXAMPLE
Two electrical resistances are connected in parallel. The failure rates of the
resistances are 1 and 2. Find the reliability of the parallel system and series
system. If 1 = 0.1 and 2 = 0.2 per hour. Calculate reliability in the two cases after
10hrs.

SOLUTION
If the system is in parallel.
Rp = 1-(1-e-1t)(1-e-2t) = e-1t +e-2t –e-(1+2)t
= e-0.1x10+e-0.2x10-e-(0.1+0.2)x10 = e-1+e-2-e-3 = 0.3679+0.1353-0.0498
= 0.4534 = 45.34%.

If the system is in series.

Rs = e-1txe-2t = e-(1+2)t = e-(0.1+0.2)x10 = e-3 = 0.0498 = 4.98%

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The reliability in the parallel case is ten times greater than series connection
reliability.

19.4 REDUNDANCY
Redundancy is another means of improving the reliability of electronics equipment.
This consists of the introduction of a duplicate component or system to perform the
same function as the original component or system. This system is used to build
systems of high reliability with component having relatively low reliability.
Redundancy may either be system redundancy where a whole system is reproduced
as shown below.
Main system

1 2 3

Redundant
system
1’ 2’ 3’

Or it may be also a stage redundancy as shown below

Main system

1 2 3

Redundant
1’ 2’ 3’ stages

Each stage is reflected by a redundant stage. Depending on how redundancy is made

to operate, it may also be classified as.
 Active Redundancy.
The redundant system stage or component operates simultaneously with the
main system stage or component.

 Standby Redundancy.

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 The redundant system stage or component is switched into operation when
required only.
The reliability of equipment is high with stage redundancy than it is with system
redundancy. The extent of redundancy is expressed as the redundancy ratio that is the
ratio of the number of alternate elements to the number of primary elements. For
standby systems, all systems connected in parallel are not in operation until the first
system fails. If all system have the same failure rate, then the reliability will be.

R = (1+ t)e-t

9.5 FAULT IN ELECTRONICS EQUIPMENTS

Faults in electronics equipment may be classified as:

 PRIMARY FAULTS
These faults cause the equipment not to satisfy the specifications in regard to any of
the primary characteristics (power output, bandwidth, etc.). The equipment is then
said to be non-serviceable.

 SECONDARY FAULTS
When these occur no operational failure of the equipment takes place, e.g broken
control knob, blown indicator lamp, etc.

FAILURE MODES
Failure is that condition of equipment in which is a fail to show the specified
performance as regards to one of the several characteristics, these may be due to
electrical or mechanical damage. The modes of failure are:

 IDEPENDENT FAILURE
It is a failure of component, which does not affect another component, e.g a blown
indicator lamp does not affect receiver operation

 DEPENDENT FAILURE
Failure of a component that causes failure of another component or whole unit e.g
blown power supplies fuses of a receiver will cut off the receiver operation.

 SUDDEN FAILURE
Damage to a component that causes the equipment to be out of operation instantly.
This may be due negligence, e.g plugging equipment to high power supply than the
rated value.
 DETERIORATION FAILURE

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Gradual change over a period in the primary parameters is due to aging of
components.

19.6 MAINTANABILITY
Maintainability is the probability that a device will be restored to operational
effectiveness within a given period when a maintenance action is performed in
accordance with prescribed procedures. Maintainability is governed by the following:
 MAINTANANCE ACTION
The prescribed operation to correct an equipment failure
 MEAN TIME TO REPAIR (MTTR) 
This is the arithmetic mean of time required to perform maintenance action
 MAINTANANCE ACTION RATE
The numerical value representing the number of maintenance that can be carried
out on particular equipment per hour.

 = 1

 MAINTANCE TIME CONSTANT
This is the permissible repair time
 MISSION TIME (T)
This is the time that the equipment is intended to operate.
 MAINTENABILITY EFFECTIVENESS (ME)
In the mission time the percentage of failures that can be returned to full
operational effectiveness in maintenance time constant provided correct
maintenance action is taken. The mean time of maintenance action is found as
follows:

Tm = Total hours of maintenance work = 1 = niiti

Number of maintenance actions  nii
Where ni, i and ti stand for number of components of similar type, failure rate of
components and predicted time of maintenance. The maintainability is designated M
and expressed as follows:

M = 1-e-t = 1-e-t/T

EXAMPLE
The mean time of maintenance action of a machine is 0.3641 and the maintenance
action rate 2.7465. Calculate the maintainability in 0.66hrs and 2hrs.

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SOLUTION
M = 1-e-t = 1-e-t/T

Tm = 0.3641,  = 2.7465

M = 1-e-2.7465x0.66 = 83.6%

Similarly for 1hr and 2hrs the M will be 93.5% and 99.6% respectively.

The average maintenance action ti is given in hrs and is calculated in five

processes. Location, isolation, removal, replacement and adjustment.
ti = time in location + time in isolation + time in removal + time in
replacement + time in adjustment.

EXAMPLE
A machine has 20 resistors and 11 capacitors. The failure rate of the resistors and
capacitors are 0.06 and 0.26 respectively. The time in location, isolation, removal,
replacement and adjustment are respectively:

R 0.03, 0.15, 0.07, 0.05, 0.00

C 0.16, 0.20, 0.01, 0.04, 0.00
Calculate the meantime of maintenance action Tm, and the maintenance action
rate . Find the maintainability M in 1hr and 2hrs.

SOLUTION
nii = 20x0.06 = 1.2 for R and
nii = 11x0.26 = 2.86 for C
ti = 0.3 for R and ti = 0.41 for C
niiti = 0.36 for R and niiti = 1.1728 for C
 nii = 1.2+2.86 = 4.06 and  niiti = 0.36+1.1726 = 1.5326

Tm = niiti = 1.5326 = 0.37

niI 4.06

 = 1 = 1 = 2.7
Tm 0.37

M = 1-e-t = 1- e-2.7x1 = 1-0.0672 = 0.9328 = 93.28%

The maintainability in 2hrs will be

M = 1-e-2.7x2 = 1-0.00452 = 0.99548 = 99.55%

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 The maintenance extends the useful life of assets. This is due to non-availability
of spare parts. The maintenances are of the following types:

 EMERGENCE MAINTENANCE
This is due to sudden stop working of the assets and major repairs are required
to start the working. This may be due to the burnt part of the system or failure
of a resistance or capacitance.
 PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE
This includes the checking and inspecting the parts. Contacts and joints are
checked which cause the failure.
 CORRECTIVE MAINTENANCE
Some parts of an asset are worn out, and a replacement is needed. The asset
will require a shut down maintenance.

19.7 AVAILABILITY
The availability of a system is the probability of satisfactory operation at an instant of
time when used specified conditions. The term when compared with reliability and
maintainability, it stands for performance is available. Reliability is the capability of
standing the asset for the work while the maintainability is the capability of asset to
be repaired or maintained, and not replaced. The availability is expressed by a
measurable quantity.

A = Mean time between failures

The total time
The total time = Mean time between failures t1 + Time taken to arrange spare t2 +
repair time t3+ Time required for bills etc t4.

A = t1
t1+ t2+t3+t4

EXAMPLE
An asset has a mean time of failure 1000hrs. the time to manage spare parts, is 1hr.
The repair consumed a time of 5hrs. The mean time of making bills and other
administration of 1hr. Calculate the availability of the asset.

SOLUTION

Availability = A = t1 = 1000 = 0.99 = 99%

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 t1+t2+t3+t4 1000+1+5+1

The availability can be expressed in terms of failure rate , rate of maintenance ,

maintenance action time and mission time as follows.

A = 1-e-tm1-e-T

This is called equipment availability. The mission availability is given by

A = e-tme-T

The availability depends on reliability R, maintainability M and management

effectiveness q.

R A

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