Bathtub Curve

RELIABILITY ENGINEERING
BATHTUB CURVE
Made by : Harsh Gupta

Roll No. : K018
What is Bathtub curve?
• The bathtub curve is a type of model
demonstrating the likely failure rates
of technologies and products.
• Over a certain product lifetime, the
bathtub curve shows how many units
might fail during any given phase of a
three-part timeline.
Repairable and Non-Repairable Items
• Non- Repairable Items –
For a non-repairable item such as a light bulb, a transistor, a rocket motor or an
unmanned spacecraft, reliability is the survival probability over the item’s
expected life, or for a period during its life, when only one failure can occur.
During the item’s life the instantaneous probability of the ﬁrst and only failure is
called the hazard rate. Life values such as the mean life or mean time to failure
(MTTF), or the expected life by which a certain percentage might have failed
(percentile life), are other reliability characteristics that can be used.
Repairable and Non-Repairable Items
• Repairable Items –
For items which are repaired when they fail, reliability is the probability that
failure will not occur in the period of interest, when more than one failure can
occur. It can also be expressed as the rate of occurrence of failures (ROCOF),
which is sometimes referred as the failure rate (usually denoted as λ).
Repairable system reliability can also be characterized by the mean time between
failures (MTBF), but only under the particular condition of a constant failure rate.
It is often assumed that failures do occur at a constant rate, in which case the
failure rate λ = (MTBF)-1.
Bathtub curve for Non-Repairable Items
Bathtub curve for Non-Repairable Items
• Zone 1 is the infant mortality period is characterized by an initially high failure rate. This is
normally the result of poor design, the use of substandard components, or lack of adequate controls
in the manufacturing process. Early failures can be eliminated by a “burn in” period.
• Zone 2, the useful life period, is characterized by an essentially constant failure rate. This is the
period dominated by chance failures. Chance failures are those failures that result from strictly
random or chance causes. They cannot be eliminated by either lengthy burn-in periods or good
preventive maintenance practices.
• Zone 3, the wear out period, is characterized by an increasing failure rate as a result of equipment
deterioration due to age or use. For example: mechanical components such as transmission bearings
will eventually wear out and fail, regardless of how well they are made. The only way to prevent
failure due to wear out is to replace or repair the deteriorating component before it fails.
• The combined effect generates the so-called bathtub curve. This shows an initial decreasing hazard
rate or infant mortality period, an intermediate useful life period and a ﬁnal wear out period. Death
is a good analogy to failure of a non-repairable system, and the bathtub curve model is similar to
actuarial statistical models.
Bathtub curve for Repairable Items
Bathtub curve for Repairable Items
• The failure rates (or ROCOF) of repairable items can also vary with time, and important
implications can be derived from these trends.
• A constant failure rate (CFR) is indicative of externally induced failures, as in the constant
hazard rate situation for non-repairable items. A CFR is also typical of complex systems subject
to repair and overhaul, where different parts exhibit different patterns of failure with time and
parts have different ages since repair or replacement.
• Repairable systems can show a decreasing failure rate (DFR) when reliability is improved by
progressive repair, as defective parts which fail relatively early are replaced by good parts. ‘Burn
in’ is applied to electronic systems, as well as to parts, for this purpose.
• An increasing failure rate (IFR) occurs in repairable systems when wearout failure modes of
parts begin to predominate.
• The pattern of failures with time of repairable systems can also be illustrated by use of the
bathtub curve, but with the failure rate (ROCOF) plotted against age instead of the hazard rate.

Bathtub Curve

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Bathtub Curve

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Bathtub Curve

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

RELIABILITY ENGINEERING

Made by : Harsh Gupta

You might also like