Today

• Failure
• Availability and unavailability
• Reliability Data
• Risk Assessment Methods
 Failure

There is not a single definition (all existing definitions arbitrary or

subjective)
• In general, two types of failures:
– Serviceability – a system cannot perform to specification
completely
– Complete loss of function
Analysis of different modes of failure and Analysis of different modes
of failure and resulting effects on the systems is done with a
• FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) or a
• FMECA (Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis) involves
quantitative failure analysis. The FMECA involves creating a series of
linkages between potential failures (Failure Modes), the impact on
the mission (Effects) and the causes of the failure (Causes and
Mechanisms). 2
Availability Unavailability
• Relating to maintenance • Unavailability = 1 – Average
• Average availability relates Availability
to the likelihood of a system
working and time since
installation or maintenance

Average Availability = time Expresses the time the system

system working or ready to was broken and waiting to
work / time elapsed since be fixed plus the time spent
installation or maintenance under repair and putting it
back to service

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 Reliability Data

• Failure data – with states defined as working / not working

• “time to failure” – measured usually in hours

• “demand failures” –measured in number of failures per

1,000 cycles of use

• Data for structural reliability calculations

variations in material properties, dimensions and loads

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Human reliability data Can be obtained in two ways:

1. By experiments under controlled conditions and/or routine

testing during manufacture
– Simulating realistic service conditions; if unknown, testing
of a range of likely or possible conditions; may be an
expensive approach

2. By systematically collecting field data of failures in service

– conditions of service vary, so do the data
– Possibility of not accurate recording
– Need to relay on large samples; OREDA (Offshore
Reliability Database)

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 Risk Assessment Methods

To use a systematic method to determine risk levels, the Risk

Assessment Process is applied ( slightly different from the 5 steps
mentioned earlier) . This process consists of four basic steps:
i) Hazard Identification
ii) Frequency Assessment
iii) Consequence Assessment, and
iv) Risk Evaluation

The level of information needed to make a decision varies widely. In

some cases, after identifying the hazards, qualitative methods of
assessing frequency and consequence are satisfactory to enable
the risk evaluation. In other cases, a more detailed quantitative
analysis is required.

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The Risk Assessment Process is illustrated in the following figure (Figure 1),
and the results possible from qualitative and quantitative approaches
are described.