Chapter 14: Exercise Questions

1. During a testing cycle, 20 units were tested for 50 hr with the following failure
times and censor times observed: 10.8, 12.6+, 15.7, 28.1, 30.5, 36.0+, 42.1, 48.2.
Determine the total test time and estimate the MTTF for this particular cycle,
assuming CFR.

2. To support the current cycle in a reliability growth testing program, a total of 8

failures need to be generated. The current estimate of the MTTF is 55 hr. the test
department is scheduled to complete testing within 72 hr. How many units should
be placed on test? If the test department is told it must complete, the testing within
48 hr, how many failures would it expect to generate?

3. The reliability testing has shown that a ground power unit used to supply DC
power to aircraft has a Weibull distribution with  0.5 and  45000
operating hours. Determine burn-in period necessary to obtain a required
reliability specification of R (1000) 0.90 .

4. Test the hypothesis

H 0 : R0 0.90

H 1 : R1 0.85

With  0.05 and  0.10 .

5. An automotive part was tested at an accelerated cycling level of 100 cycles per
hour. The resulting failure data were found to have a Weibull distribution, with
 2.5 and  s 1000hr . If the normal cycle time is 5 per hour, what is the
normal cycle characteristic life and reliability?

6. An electronic component has a normal operating temperature of 294 K (about 21


C). Under stress testing at 430K a Weibull distribution was obtained with
 254hr , and at 450 K , a Weibull distribution was obtained with  183hr .
The shape parameter didn’t change with  1.72 . Compute the acceleration
factor to be applied at the normal stress temperature. What is the characteristic life
at normal operating temperature?

Reflective Questions

1. State whether the following statements are true or false.

(a). The objective of reliability life testing is to obtain information about failures
in order to quantify and improve product reliability.
(b). Binomial testing results in a reliability demonstration that will discriminate
between an acceptable and unacceptable reliability at specified risk levels.

(c). When failures are accelerated mainly as a result of an increase in

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 temperature, Arrhenius model is the best.

2. Match the correct statements in columns A and B.

A B
Burn-in and screen test Test to reduce the length of test by
accelerating failures
Sequential test Statistical test to isolate the causes of
failures
Acceptance and qualification test Test to eliminate the infant mortality
Experimental design Test to demonstrate that the reliability/
maintainability goal are met or not met
Accelerated life test Test to demonstrate that the reliability
goals have been met, parts and
components are within acceptable limits

3. A centrifugal pump used in a refinery follows a Weibull reliability model. How to

estimate the required burn-in period for the pump? How to ascertain to what
degree the burn-in testing is to be utilized?

4. In industry, statistical tests are extensively used for product quality testing. Do
you know what is the criterion to accept or reject a null hypothesis?

5. The wearout failure modes, such as corrosion and cracking, of a motor can be
accelerated by operating the system under increased temperature, humidity and in
presence of a catalyst. If the failure of motor follows an exponential model, how
will you estimate the mean time to failure at normal operating condition, by
knowing the MTTF under accelerated conditions?

6. For material subjects to corrosion, the length of time before degradation become
unacceptable is being lengthy. If you know the corrosion rate and the maximum
allowable loss, after which the material is no longer structurally sound, how will
you estimate the time to failure?
(Corrosion rate measures the thickness loss of material per unit of time)

Solution to Exercise Questions

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 1. For Type I testing with t * 50hr as the test termination time,
r
T  ti  ( n  r )t * 10.8  12.6  15.7  28.1  30.5  36.0  42.1  42.8
i 1

 ( 20  6  2)50

824hr
Then, MTTF 824 / 6 137.3hr

2. This is Type II testing. Since the length of test is MTTF * TTF , then,
TTF8,n 72 / 55 1.31

From the standard table,

TTF8,10 1.429

TTF8,11 1.187

Then, 11 units should be placed on test.

0.50
3. Observe that, R(1000) e  (1000 / 45000) 0.86 and   1 . Therefore, the burn-
period is necessary. Numerically solving
  1000  T  0.5    T  0.5 
exp       0. 90 exp     0
  45000     45000  

yields the burn-in period, T 126hr . Therefore, R (1000 / 126) 0.90 .

4. R0 0.90, R1 0.85 ,  0.05,  0.10

 0.10 1   1  0.10
A  0.10526 , B   18
1   1  0.05  0.05

 R (1  R0 )   0.85(1  0.90) 
D ln  1  ln    0.4626
 R0 (1  R1 )   0.90(1  0.85) 
Slope of the accept/reject lines is,  ln(0.15 / 0.10) / D 0.876 .

Then, ln( B ) / D  6.2478 and ln( A) / D 4.866 . The acceptance region is

 6.2478  0.876n  y n  4.866  0.876n , and H 0 will be rejected if y n falls
below the lower bounds, and accepted if y n exceeds the upper bound. A graph of
the regions is shown below. The minimum number of test cases to reject H 0 is 8
(where the reject line first crosses the horizontal axis), where as the minimum
number needed to accept H 0 is 40. Below 40, the number of survivors needed to
accept H 0 is more than the number at risk.

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 Accept H0

Reject H0

5. Accelerated cycling:
 s 1000hr ,  2.5 , xs 100 and xn 5

xs  100 
n   s  1000 20000hr
xn  5 
2.5
  t  
Rn (t ) exp     
  20000  

6. Arrhenius model:
 1 1 
AF exp  B   
  T1 T2  
T1 430 K , T2 450 K , 1 254 ,  2 183

ln AF ln(254 / 183)
B  3172
(1 / T1  1 / T2 ) (1 / 430  1 / 450)

Therefore, the acceleration factor to be applied at the normal stress temperature,

  1 1 
AF exp 3172    42.1
  294 450  

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 Therefore, the time to failure of the component at normal temperatures is
estimated to be Weibull with a shape parameter of 1.72 and
 42.1 * 183 7704.3hr

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