Exercises

6.1 The PDF for the time-to-failure of an appliance is

f ( t ) : , ?2t , r ' t> o,
(t+4)3'
where f is in years
(a) Find the reliability of R(r).
(b) Find the failure rate À(t).
(c) Find the MTTF.

6.2 The reliability of a machine is given by R(t; : expl-0.04t - 0.008 f] (t

in years).
(a) What is the failure rate?
(b) What should the clesign life be to maintain a reliabiliry of at least
0.90?

6.3 The failure rate for a high-speed fan is given by

À(t; : (2 x l0-4 + 3 x l0-6t)/hr,
where /is in hours of operation. The required designJife reliability is
0.95.
(a) How many hours of operation should the design life be?
(b) If, by preventive maintenance, the wear contribution to the
failure rate can be eliminated, to how many hours can the design
life be extended?
(c) By placing the fan in a controlled environment, we can reduce
the constant contribution to À(l) by a factor of two. Then, without
Rzliability and Rates of Failu.re preventive maintenance, to how
many hours may the design be extended?
(d) What is the extended design life when both reductions from
and ( c) are made?

6.4 If the CDF for times to failure is

F( t ) : ^r - . 1o,o=, -
(t+10)2
(a) Find the failure rate as a function of time.
(b) Does the failure rate increase or decrease with time?
6.5Repeat Exercise 6.3, but fix the design life at 100 hr and calculate
the design-life reliability for conditions (a), (b), (t), and (d).

6.6An electronic device is tested for two months and found to have
a reliability of 0.990; the device is also known to have a constant
failure rate.
(a) What is the failure rate?
(b) What is the mean-time-to-failure?
(c) What is the design life reliability for a design life of 4 years?
(d) What should the design life be to achieve a reliability of 0.950?

6.7A logic circuit is known to have a decreasing failure rate of the

form
À(r) : fix-1/2/year,
where t is in years.
(a) If the design life is one year, what is the reliability?
(b) If the component undergoes wearin for one month before being
put into operation, what will the reliability be for a one-year design
life?

6.8A device has a constant failure rate of 0.7 /year.

(a) What is the probability that the device will fail during the second
year of operation?
(b) If upon failure the device is immediately replaced, what is the
probability that there will be more than one failure in 3 years of
operation?

6.9The failure rate on a new brake drum design is estimated to be

À(r) : I.2 x 10-6 exp(10-4t) per set, where / is in kilometers of normal
driving. Forfy vehicles are each test-driven for 15,000 km.
(a) How many failures are expected, assuming that the vehicles with
failed drives are removed from the test?
(b) What is the probability that more than two vehicles will fail?

6.10 The failure rate for a hydraulic component is given empirically

by
À(r; : 0.001 (l -t 2e-2t + et/4l)/year
where / is in years. If the system is installed at t: 0, calculate the
probability that it will have failed by time l. Plot your results for 40
years.

6.11 A home computer manufacturer determines that his machine

has a constant failure rate of À : 0.4 year in normal use. For how long
should the warranty be set if no more than 5% of the computers are
to be returned to the manufacturer for repair?

6.12 What fraction of items tested are expected to last more than I
MTTF if the distribution of times-to-failure is
(a) exponential,
(b) normal,
(c) lognormal with @ : 2,
(d) Weibull with m : 2?

6.13 A one-year guarantee is given based on the assumption that no

more than 10% of the items will be returned. Assuming an
exponential distribution, what is the maximum failure rate that can
be tolerated?

6.14 There is a contractual requirement to demonstrate with g0%

confidence that a vehicle can achieve a 100-km mission with a
reliability of 99%. The acceptance test is performed by running 10
vehicles over a 50,000-km test track.
(a) What is the contractual MTTF?
(b) What is the maximum number of failures that can be
experienced on the demonstration test without violating the
contractual requirement?
(Note: Assume an exponential distribution, and review Section
2.5.)

6.15 The reliability for the Rayleigh distribution is

R(t1 : s-(t/01'.
Find the MTTF in terms of 0.

6.16 Suppose the CDF for time to failure is given by

It - a t ' . t < 1 / f ;
Æ( l ): 1
[0, t> t /fà
Determine the following:
(a) the PDF ïQ),
(b) the failure rate,
(c) the MTTF.
Reliability and Rates of I'ailure L7l

6.17 Suppose that amplifiers have a constant failure rate of À" :

0.08/month. Suppose that four such amplifiers are tested for 6
months. What is the probability that more than one of them will fail?
Assume that when they fail, they are not replaced.

6.18 A device has a constant failure rate with a MTTF of 2 months.

One hundred of the devices are tested to failure.
(a) How many of the devices do you expect to fail during the
second month?
(b) Of the devices which survive two months, what fraction do you
expect to fail during the third month?
(c) If you are allowed to stop the test after 80 failures, how long do
you expect the test to last?

6.19 A manufacturer determines that the average television set is

used 1.8 hr/day. A one-year warranty is offered on the picture tube
having a MTTF of 2000 hr. If the distribution is exponential, what
fraction of the tubes will fail during the warranty period?

6.20 Ten control circuits are to undergo simultaneous accelerated

testing to study the failure modes. The accelerated failure rate has
previously been estimated to be constant with a value of 0.04 days-t.
(u) What is the probability that there will be at least one failure during
the first day of the test?
(b) What is the probability that there will be more than one failure
during the first week of the test?

6.21 The reliability of a cutting tool is given by

[1t-0.2r)2,o<r<b,
R(r) = 1
Lo, t> 5,
where / is in hours.
(a) What is the MTTF?
(b) How frequently should the tool be changed if failures are to be
held to no more than 5%?
(c) Is the failure rate decreasing or increasing? Justi$' your result.
6,22 A motor-operated valve has a failure rate À6 while it is open
and À. While it is closed. It also has a failure probabiliry Fo to open on
demand and a failure probability p, to close on demand. Develop
an expression for the composite fâilure rate similar to Eq. 6.46 for the
valve.

6.23 A failure PDF for an appliance is assumed to be a normal

distribution with p : 5 years and n: 0.8 years. Set the design life for
(a) a reliability of 90Vo,
(b) a reliability of ggVo.
172 Introdu ction to Reliability Engineering

6.24 A designer assumes a g07o probability that a new piece of

machinery will fail at some time between 2 years and l0 years.
(a) Fit a lognormal distribution to this belief.
(b) What is the MTTF?

6.25 The life of a rocker arm is assumed to be 4 million cycles. This is

known to a factor of two with g0% probability. If the reliabiliqz is to be
0.95,
how many cycles should the design life be?

6.26 Two components have the same MTTF; the first has a constant
failure rate Àe and the second follows a Rayleigh distribution, for
which
[' ^(r'\ .t' : J ,", ' l , ] ) t .
\0/
(a) Find I in terms of Às.
(b) If for each component the design-life reliability must be 0.9, how
much longer (in percentage) is the design life of the second
Rayleigh) component?

6.27 Night watchmen carry an industrial flashlight B hr per night, 7

nights per week. It is estimated that on the average the flashlight is
turned on about 20 min per B-hr shift. The flashlight is assumed to
have a constant failure rate of 0.08/hr while it is turned on and of
0.005/hr when it is turned off but being carried.
(a) In working hours, estimate the MTTF of the light.
(b) \Arhat is the probability of the ligtrt's failing during one B-hr shift?
(c) What is the probability of its failing during one month (30 days) of
8-hr shifts?

6.28 Consider the two components in Exercise 6.26.

(a) For what designJife reliability are the design lives of the two
components equal?
(b) On the same graph plot reliability versus time for the two
components.

6.29 The two-parameter Weibull distribution with m : 2 is known as the

Rayleigh distribution. For a nonredundant system made of l/
components, each described. by the same Rayleigh distribution, find
the system MTTF in terms of N and the component 0.

6.30 If waves hit a platform at the rate of 0.4/l;:'in and the

"memoryless" failure probabiliq is L0-6/wave, estimate the failure rate
in days-l.

6.31 The one-month reliability on an indicator lamp is 0.95 with the

failure rate specified as constant. What is the probability that more
than two spare bulbs will be needed during the first year of
operation? (Ignore replacement time.)

6.32 A part for a marine engine r,vith a constant failure rate has an
MTTF of two months. If two spare parts are carried,
(a) What is the probability of surviving a six-month cruise without
losing the use of the engine as a result of part exhaustion?
(b) What is the result for part a if three spare parts are carried?

6.33 In Exercise 6.27, suppose that there are three watchmen on dufy
every night for B hr.
(a) How many flashlight failures would you exPect in one year?
(b) Assuming that the failures are not caused by battery or bulb
wearout (these are replaced frequently), how many spare flashlights
would be required to be on hand at the beginning of the year, if the
probability of running out of spares is to be less than l0%?

6.34 An electronics manufacture mixes 1,000 capacitors with an MTTF

of 3 months and 2,000 capacitors with an MTTF of 6 months.
Assuming that the capacitors have constant failures rates:
(a) What is the PDF for the combined population?
(b) Use Eq. 6.15 to derive an expression for the failure rate of the
combined population.
(c) What is the failure rate at t : 0?
(d) Does the failure rate increase or decrease with time?
(e) What is the failure rate at very long times?

6.35 A servomechanism has an MTBF of 2000 hr. with a constant

failure rate.
(a) What is the reliability for a 125-hr mission?
(b) Neglecting repair time, what is the probability that more than
one failure will occur during a 125-hr mission?
(c) That more than two failures will occur during a 725-hr mission?

6.36 Assume that the occurrence of earthquakes strong enough to

be damaging to a particular structure is governed by the Poisson
distribution. If the mean time between such earth quakes is nryice
the design life of the structure:
(a) What is the probability that the structure will be damaged during
its design life?
(b) What is the probability that it will suffer more than one damaging
earthquake during its design life?
(c) Calculate the failure rate (i.e., damage rate due to
earthquakes).

6.37 A relay circuit has an MTBF of 0.8 yr. Assuming random failures,
(a) Calculate the probability that the circuit will survive one year
without failure.
(b) What is the probability that there will be more than two failures in
the first year?
(c) What is the expected number of failures per year?

6.38 Demonstrate that Eq. 6.106 satisfies E q. 6.104.

6.39 The MTBF for punctures of truck tires is 150,000 miles. A truck with
10 litres carries 1 spare.
(a) What is the probability that the spare will be used on a 10,000-
mile trip?
(b) What is the probability that more than the single spare will be
required on a 10,000-mile trip?

6.40 Widgets have a constant failure rate with MTTF : 5 days. Ten
widgets are tested for one day.
(a) What is the expected number of failures during the test?
(b) What is the probability that more than one will fail during the
test?
(c) For how long would you run the test if you wanted the expected
number of failures to be five?