Reliability Engineering

Student Notes

Note
This document contains the important points discussed in the pre-recorded courseware. It will help in revising the
important concepts related to Reliability Engineering course.

This Student Note is authorized for use only by Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) - Pilani students. Copying or
posting of its content is an infringement of copyright.
 Reliability Engineering

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Lecture 6 Notes
Focus Topics:
 State-Dependent Systems: Determination of Reliability using Markov Analysis
 State-Dependent Systems: Determination of Reliability for Load-Sharing
System
 State-Dependent Systems: Determination of Reliability for Standby Systems
 Markov Analysis
• The system is looked at as being in one of many states.
• Markov analysis is used upon a two component system.
• Assume that each of n components will be in one of two states- operating or failed.
• Thus the system state can be defined to be one of the 2n possible combinations of
operating and failed components.

• To find Pi(t) – probability of the system being in a state i at time t

• For a two-component series system,
Rs(t) = P1(t)
• For a two-component parallel system,
Rp(t) = P1(t)+P2(t)+P3(t)
• Since the system must be in one of the four states at any given time,
P1(t)+P2(t)+P3(t)+P4(t) = 1
• Rate diagram for a two-component independent system

Assume Individual components have constant failure rates λi

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 Reliability Engineering

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• Probability of the system being in state 1 at time t + Δt

= P(being in state 1 at time t) – P(being in state 1 at time t times the probability
of transitioning (λiΔt) to either state 2 or 3).
P1(t + Δt) = P1(t) – λ1 Δt P1(t)- λ2 Δt P1(t)
Similarly
P2(t + Δt) = P2(t) + λ1 Δt P1(t)- λ2 Δt P2(t)
P3(t + Δt) = P3(t) + λ2 Δt P1(t)- λ1 Δt P3(t)
P4(t + Δt) = P4(t) + λ2 Δt P2(t)+ λ1 Δt P3(t)
• Rewriting and applying limit

• For a series system

• For a parallel system

 Load-Sharing System
 Markov analysis is applied to a load-sharing system.
 In this system, the two components in parallel are dependent on each other.
 If one component fails, the failure rate of the other component increases due to the
additional load.


1 and  2 represent the increased failure rates of components 1 and 2


respectively.

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 Reliability Engineering

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Rate diagram for a two-component load-sharing system

• The resulting differential equations

• The solution to these questions is as follows

If and then

 Standby Systems
 Standby systems are generally much more reliable than an active redundant
system.
 Unlike an active redundant system, a two-component standby system will have a
reduced failure rate in its standby mode.
 The backup unit may or may not have the same failure rate as that of the online
system.
 Failure rate of the standby unit depends on the state of the primary unit.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
This Student Note is authorized for use only by Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) – Pilani
Students. Copying or posting of its content is an infringement of copyright. 3
 Reliability Engineering

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
This Student Note is authorized for use only by Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) – Pilani
Students. Copying or posting of its content is an infringement of copyright. 4