3.

SYSTEM RELIABILITY

Objectives
Learn the definitions of a component and a
system from a reliability perspective
Be able to calculate reliability of series, parallel
and complex systems given the reliabilities of
their components

DEFINITION OF COMPONENTS AND

SYSTEMS
Component: One failure mode, one performance
function
System reliability: multiple failure modes, multiple
performance functions
Block diagram: Shows effect of the failures of the
components on the failure of the system

SERIES SYSTEM RELIABILITY

System fails if any one of its components fails.

The reliability of this model is calculated by:

If the components can be assumed to be
exponentially distributed then the system reliability
can be calculated as:
The Failure rate of the system is calculated as by
adding the failure rates together, i.e.
3

SERIES SYSTEM RELIABILITY(CONTD)

If component failures are governed by the weibull
Failure law ,
Then

MTTF= 1/
4

PARALLEL SYSTEM RELIABILITY :

System survives if one component survives.
1
2
n
The reliability of this model is calculated by:

Rs (t ) 1 (1 R1 )(1 R2 )..........(1 Rn )
n

Rs (t ) 1 (1 Ri )
i 1

It is always true that

Rs (t ) max{R1 (t ), R2 (t )..........Rn (t )}

PARALLEL SYSTEM RELIABILITY

(CONTD):
For a redundant system having constant CFR
components,