Statistics for Engineering Applications
ENGN 2130
Lecture 01
Introdution
Course Outline
Course description:
This course provides an introduction to statistics through its application to engineering in the areas of reliability
and experimentation. Basic statistical concepts, such as probability, descriptive measures, population
distributions, and hypothesis testing will be taught in the context of engineering reliability and experimentation
scenarios. Students will be introduced to fundamental concepts of reliability, such as failure and repairability
rates, and analysis techniques such as reliability block diagrams and fault tree analysis. Student will also learn
the basics of experimental design, including one-factor-at-a-time and factorial testing, and get hands on
experience with the design, execution, analysis and interpretation of experimental results.
Textbooks:
1) Allan G. Bluman, Elementary Statistics, A Step y Step Approach, McGraw Hill, 7th Edition, 2009
2) Ronald E. Walpole et al, Probability and Statistics for Scientists and Engineers, Prentice Hall, 9th Edition, 2011
Grade breakdown:
Grading Item Score Notes
Lab 20
Assignments 20
Midterm 20 Week 10
Final Exam 40
Reliability Engineering - Basic concepts
What is Reliability?
• In reliability engineering we are concerned with the probability that an item will survive for
a stated interval (e.g. time, cycles, distance, etc.), that is, that there is no failure in the
interval (0 to x). This is the reliability, and it is given by the reliability function R(x).
• This concept is very useful in many scenarios such as defining the warranty period for a
product.
• In order to understand this definition, we need to introduce the appropriate mathematical
tools which include the study of statistics and probability.
Reliability Engineering - Basic concepts
Product fails for one or more of the following reasons:
The main reasons why failures occur are:
1. The design might be inherently incapable. It might be too weak, consume too much power, suffer
resonance at the wrong frequency, and so on.
2. The item might be overstressed in some way. If the stress applied exceeds the strength, then
failure will occur. An electronic component will fail if the applied electrical stress (voltage, current)
exceeds the ability to withstand it, and a mechanical strut will buckle if the compression stress
applied exceeds the buckling strength. Overstress failures such as these do happen, but fortunately
not very often, since designers provide margins of safety.
3. Failures can be caused by wearout. We will use this term to include any mechanism or process that
causes an item that is sufficiently strong at the start of its life to become weaker with age. Well-
known examples of such processes are material fatigue, wear between surfaces in moving contact,
corrosion, insulation deterioration, and the wearout mechanisms of light bulbs and fluorescent tubes.
Reliability Engineering - Basic concepts
There are three kinds of engineering products, from the perspective of failure prevention:
1. Intrinsically reliable components, which are those that have high margins between their strength
and the stresses that could cause failure, and which do not wear out within their practicable
lifetimes. Such items include nearly all electronic components (if properly applied), nearly all
mechanical non-moving components, and all correct software.
2. Intrinsically unreliable components, which are those with low design margins or which wear out
easily, such as light bulbs, turbine blades, parts that move in contact with others, like gears, bearings
and power drive belts, and so on.
3. Systems which include many components and interfaces, like cars, dishwashers, aircraft, and so
on, so that there are many possibilities for failures to occur, particularly across interfaces (e.g.
inadequate electrical overstress protection, vibration nodes at weak points, electromagnetic
interference, software that contains errors, and so on).
Reliability Engineering - Basic concepts
Cost of Reliability:
• In principle, the same argument applies to reliability: all efforts to improve reliability by
identifying and removing potential causes of failures in service should result in cost savings later in
the product life cycle, giving a net benefit in the longer term. In other words, an effective
reliability program represents an investment, usually with a large payback over a period of time.
• Unfortunately, it is not easy to quantify the effects
of given reliability program activities, such as
additional design analysis or testing, on achieved
reliability. The costs (including those related to the
effects on project schedules) of the activities are
known, and they arise in the short term, but the
benefits arise later and are often much less certain.
However, achieving levels of reliability close to 100
% is often not realistic for complex products.