EARLY DESIGN STAGE RELIABILITY ANALYSIS USING FUNCTION-FLOW FAILURE RATES

摘要

In this paper, failure rates for function-flow pairs are presented. This data creates an opportunity for the designer to move reliability analysis earlier in the design process. The function-flow failure rates can be used to make design decisions before components are selected giving the designer increased knowledge to explore alternative options. A reliability block diagram approach has been adopted to evaluate the reliability of three designs at both the functional and component level. The results show that the bounds from the functional reliability overlap those of the component reliability.