EE/MM391 – MAINTENANCE

AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING

FSTE / SEP

Final Examination
Semester 2 2016

Print Mode (F2F)

Duration of Exam: 3 hours + 10 minutes

Reading Time: 10 minutes
Writing Time: 3 hours
Instructions:

Closed book Exam

1. All questions need to be answered.
2. Each question may contain sub section, hence read carefully.
3. Check to see that you have a complete question paper – 5 pages.
4. Candidates may bring:
(i) A non-programmable calculator (memory cleared).
(ii) Drawing instruments & rulers.
5. This exam is worth 50% of your overall mark (100). The minimum exam pass mark is
20/50.

NOTE:
• Total no. of questions: 10 and you should spend an average of 16-17 minutes per
question.
• Drawings and sketches may be completed in pencil however all calculations and
written work must be completed in ink.
• All answers must be written in the examination booklet provided.
• Do not use white-out on the examination booklet.
Q1 a) What are the principal goals of Reliability–Centered Maintenance (RCM)? 4M
b) What are the four major components of RCM? 2M
c) A system is composed of three independent and identical units in parallel and at 4M
least two units must operate normally for the system success. The unit failure rate is
0.0001 failures per hour. It takes an average of 2 h to repair (exponential
distribution) a failed unit to an active state. Calculate the system approximate
effective failure rate if the failed system is never repaired.

Q2 a) List eight basic techniques employed by proactive maintenance to extend 4M

equipment life.
b) An engineering system can fail in two mutually exclusive failure modes. Failure 6M
modes I and II constant failure rates are λ1 = 0.002 failures per hour and λ2 = 0.005
failures per hour, respectively. The constant corrective maintenance rates from
failure modes I and II are µC1 = 0.006 repairs per hour and µC2 = 0.009 repairs per
hour, respectively. Calculate the system steady state availability and also show the
system transition diagram.

Q3 a) Describe the following Predicative Testing and Inspection 5M

technologies/approaches:
• Thermography
• Vibration monitoring and analysis 5M
b) What is nondestructive testing? List at least two (2) techniques associated with
nondestructive testing and their application area.

Q4 a) Discuss sequential steps associated with corrective maintenance. 3M

b) Discuss at least four strategies for reducing the system-level corrective maintenance 4M
time.
c) Assume that, we have system failure rate of 0.001, 0.003 and 0.002 failures per 3M
hour for the ith system state, respectively. Also assume that we have system
corrective maintenance rate 0.008, 0.004, and 0.006 repairs per hour respectively
from state i. Calculate the value of the system full steady-state availability.

Q5 a) Define the following indexes associated with RCM: 5M

i) Emergency percentage index
ii) Maintenance overtime percentage index

b) If the maintenance load in maintenance-hours for the last six months is given as
Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 5M
Maintenance Load 200 300 200 400 500 600

i) Find the load forecast for periods 7 and 8 using a three month moving average?

ii) If w5=w4= 0.25 and w6= 0.5, find the load forecast for periods 7 and 8 using a
three month weighted moving average?

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Q6 a) Compute the Cpk measure of process capability for the following machine and 3M
interpret the findings. What value would you have obtained with the Cp measure?
Machine Data: USL = 80
LSL = 50
Process σ = 5
Process µ = 60
b) Use of the sample range to estimate variability can also be applied to the Crunchy 3M
Potato Chip operation. A quality control inspector has taken 4 samples with 5
observations each, measuring the volume of chips per bag. If the average range for
the 4 samples is 0.2 ounces and the average mean of the observations is 12.5
ounces, develop three-sigma control limits for the bottling operation.
c) Ten samples with 5 observations each have been taken from the Crunchy Potato 4M
Chip Company plant in order to test for volume dispersion in the bagging process.
The average sample range was found to be 0.3 ounces. Develop control limits for
the sample range.

Q7 A compressor system times to failure are exponentially distributed. The compressor system 10M
failure rate, λc, is constant. The compressor system transition diagram is shown in the
Figure 1, below. Develop expressions for the system reliability and failure probability
using the Markov approach. The numerals in boxes denote system state.

Figure 1: Compressor system state space diagram.

Q8 a) A piece of electronic equipment is composed of five replaceable subsystems 1–5, 5M

with corresponding failure rates: λ1 = 0.0008 failures per hour, λ2 = 0.0010 failures
per hour, λ3 = 0.0012 failures per hour, λ4 = 0.0014 failures per hour and λ5 =
0.0016 failures per hour, respectively. The corresponding corrective maintenance
times for subsystems 1–5 are T1 = 2.25 h, T2 = 3.5 h, T3 = 4.25 h, T4 = 5 h, and T5 =
6.5 h, respectively. Calculate the equipment’s Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).

b) Assume that MTTR of an electronic system is 4.5 h. Determine the probability that
a repair action will be accomplished in 7.25 h, if the repair times are exponentially 5M
distributed.

Q9 a) An aircraft has two independent and active engines. At least one engine must 3M
operate normally for the aircraft to fly. Engines 1 and 2 reliabilities are 0.98 and
0.96, respectively. Calculate the probability of the aircraft flying successfully with
respect to engines.

b) A system is composed of two independent and active units, and at least one unit 7M
must work normally for the system success. The constant failure rates of units 1
and 2 are λ1 = 0.007 failures per hour and λ2 = 0.009 failures per hour, respectively.
Calculate the system mean time to failure.

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Q 10 a) A room has two light bulbs and one switch. Develop a fault tree for the top event – 7M
room not lit. Assume the following:
• The room is windowless.
• The switch can only fail to close.
• The room will only become dark if there is no electricity, both light bulbs burn
out, or the switch fails to close.
Each event in your Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) figure should be labeled E1,E2,…E8.

b) Assume that in your FTA, the probabilities of occurrence of the base events E1, E2,
E3, E4, and E5 are 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.10, and 0.12, respectively. Calculate the 3M
probability of occurrence of the top event – room not lit.

APPENDIX: Formulas, Graphs and Tables needed for the calculations:

P.T.O. (Appendix Continued)

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 � and R-charts
Table: Factors for three-sigma control limits of 𝒙𝒙

Sample Size n Factor for 𝑥𝑥̅ -Chart Factors for R-Chart

A2 D3 D4
2 1.88 0 3.27
3 1.02 0 2.57
4 0.73 0 2.28
5 0.58 0 2.11
6 0.48 0 2.00
7 0.42 0.08 1.92
8 0.37 0.14 1.86
9 0.34 0.18 1.82
10 0.31 0.22 1.78
11 0.29 0.26 1.74
12 0.27 0.28 1.72
13 0.25 0.31 1.69
14 0.24 0.33 1.67
15 0.22 0.35 1.65
16 0.21 0.36 1.64
17 0.20 0.38 1.62
18 0.19 0.39 1.61
19 0.19 0.40 1.60
20 0.18 0.41 1.59
21 0.17 0.43 1.58
22 0.17 0.43 1.57
23 0.16 0.44 1.56
24 0.16 0.45 1.55
25 0.15 0.46 1.54

THE END

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