Reliability Modelling: A Statistical Approach

Front Cover
CRC Press, Jun 25, 1999 - Business & Economics - 272 pages
Reliability is an essential concept in mathematics, computing, research, and all disciplines of engineering, and reliability as a characteristic is, in fact, a probability. Therefore, in this book, the author uses the statistical approach to reliability modelling along with the MINITAB software package to provide a comprehensive treatment of modelling, from the basics through advanced modelling techniques.

The book begins by presenting a thorough grounding in the elements of modelling the lifetime of a single, non-repairable unit. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, the author includes a guide to all the fundamentals of probability theory, defines the various measures associated with reliability, then describes and discusses the more common lifetime models: the exponential, Weibull, normal, lognormal and gamma distributions. She concludes the groundwork by looking at ways of choosing and fitting the most appropriate model to a given data set, paying particular attention to two critical points: the effect of censored data and estimating lifetimes in the tail of the distribution.

The focus then shifts to topics somewhat more difficult:
  • the difference in the analysis of lifetimes for repairable versus non-repairable systems and whether repair truly "renews" the system
  • methods for dealing with system with reliability characteristic specified for more than one component or subsystem
  • the effect of different types of maintenance strategies
  • the analysis of life test data

    The final chapter provides snapshot introductions to a range of advanced models and presents two case studies that illustrate various ideas from throughout the book.
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    Contents

    Basic Concepts
    1
    Common Lifetime Models
    21
    Model Selection
    37
    Lognormal plot for Example 3 7
    51
    4
    53
    Log likelihood function for Example 4 2
    60
    PP plot for Example 4 11
    68
    Cumulative distribution function plot for the KolmogorovSmirnov
    76
    An alternating renewal process
    98
    6
    101
    Block diagram for Example 6 2
    106
    Models for Functions of Random Variations
    127
    Maintenance Strategies
    149
    Life Testing and Inference
    175
    Advanced Models
    211
    Appendix
    239

    5
    81
    MCRF and MCCF plots for Example 5 1
    84
    Duane plot for Example 5 6
    91
    References
    249
    Copyright

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    Page 252 - Winterbottom, A. (1980) Asymptotic expansions to improve large sample confidence intervals for system reliability. Biometrika, 67, 351-7.

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