Reliability Engineering

Reliability engineering is the science of predicting the functioning life span of a product through the various phases of its commercial life. This work deals with the complete life cycle of reliability engineering including such aspects as system reliability, the estimation of parameters of the failure time distributions, and methods for reliability improvement. The book also covers parametric and nonparametric models, warranty, preventative maintenance, and accelerated testing. The accompanying disk features reliability analysis software and material on accelerated life testing.

Table of Contents:
I. RELIABILITY AND SYSTEM DESIGN. 1. Reliability and Hazard Functions. Introduction. Reliability Definition and Estimation. Hazard Functions. Multivariate Hazard Rates. Mixture of Failure Rates. Mean Time to Failure (MTTF). Mean Residual Life (MRL). Problems. References. 2. System Reliability Evaluation. Introduction. Reliability Block Diagrams. Series Systems. Parallel Systems. Parallel-Series, Series-Parallel, and Mixed-Parallel Systems. Consecutive-k-out-of-n:F System. Reliability of k-out-of-n Systems. Complex Reliability Systems. Multistate Models. Redundancy. Importance Measures of Components. Problems. References. 3. Time- and Failure-Dependent Reliability. Nonrepairable Systems. Mean Time to Failure (MTTF). Repairable Systems. Availability. Dependent Failures. Redundancy and Standby. Problems. References. II. PARAMETER ESTIMATION AND RELIABILITY TESTING. 4. Estimation Methods of the Parameters of Failure-Time Distributions. Method of Moments. The Likelihood Function. Method of Least Squares. Problems. References. 5. Parametric Reliability Models. Approach 1: Historical Data. Approach 2: Operational Life Testing. Approach 3: Burn-In Testing. Approach 4: Accelerated Life Testing. Types of Censoring. The Exponential Distribution. The Rayleigh Distribution. The Weibull Distribution. Lognormal Distribution. The Gamma Distribution. The Extreme Value Distribution. The Half-Logistic Distribution. Linear Models. Multicensored Data. Problems. References. 6. Models for Accelerated Life Testing. Accelerated Testing. Accelerated Failure Data Models. Statistics-Based Models: Parametric. Statistics-Based Models: Nonparametric. Physics-Statistics-Based Models. Physics-Experimental-Based Models. Degradation Models. Accelerated Life Testing Plans. Problems. References. III. RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT: WARRANTY AND PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE. 7. Renewal Processes and Expected Number of Failures. Parametric Renewal Function Estimation. Nonparametric Renewal Function Estimation. Alternating Renewal Process. Approximations of M(t). Other Types of Renewal Processes. The Variance of the Number of Renewals. Confidence Intervals for the Renewal Function. Remaining Life at Time t. Poisson Processes. Problems. References. 8. Warranty Models. Introduction. Warranty Models for Nonrepairable Products. Warranty Models for Repairable Products. Warranty Claims. Problems. References. 9. Preventive Maintenance and Inspection. Preventive Maintenance and Replacement Models: Cost Minimization. Preventive Maintenance and Replacement Models: Downtime Minimization. Minimal Repair Models. Optimum Replacement Intervals for Systems Subject to Shocks. Preventive Maintenance and Number of Spares. Group Maintenance. Periodic Inspection. On-Line Surveillance and Monitoring. Problems. References. 10. Case Studies. Case 1: A Crane Spreader Subsystem. Case 2: Design of a Production Line. Case 3: An Explosive Detection System. Case 4: Reliability of Furnace Tubes. Case 5: Reliability Modeling of Telecommunication Networks for the Air Traffic Control System. Case 6: System Design Using Reliability Objectives. References. Appendix A. Gamma Table. Appendix B. Coefficients of b sub is for i=1, ...,n asterisk. Appendix C. Variance of theta asterisk sub 2 in Terms of theta sub 2 squares over n and K3/K2 asterisk. Appendix D. Coefficients (asubi and bsubi) of the Best Estimates of the Mean (mu) and Standard Deviation (sigma) in Censored Samples Up to n=20 from a Normal Population. Appendix E. Standard Normal Distribution. Appendix F. Computer Program to Calculate the Reliability of a Consecutive-k-out-of-n:F System. Appendix G. Optimum Arrangement of Components in Consecutive-2-out-of-n:F Systems. Appendix H. Computer Program for Solving the Time-Dependent Equations Using Runge-Kuttas Method. Appendix I. The Newton-Raphson Method. Appendix J. Computer Listing of the Newton-Raphson Method. Appendix K. Bakers Algorithm. Appendix L. Critical Values of chi squared. Appendix M. Solutions of Selected Problems. Index.

About the Author :
Elsayed A. Elsayed is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Rutgers University where he is also the Director of the Quality and Reliability Engineering Laboratory. Dr. Elsayed is Editor of the IIE Transactions on Quality and Reliability Engineering, IIE Transactions on Operation Engineering, and The International Journal of Reliability, Quality and Safety Engineering. He is co-author of Analysis and Control of Production Systems (Prentice-Hall) and Quality Engineering in Production Systems (McGraw-Hill), which won the IIE Joint Publishers Book-of-the-Year Award. In addition, he has consulted for such companies as AT&T Bell Laboratories, Ingersoll-Rand, Johnson & Johnson, and Personal Products. 0201634813AB04062001