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SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering pp 2875–2940Cite as

Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability

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Abstract

Many engineering fields can benefit from reliability, availability, and maintainability, concepts and techniques. Fire protection engineering is not an exception. For example, fire protection engineers may be interested in estimating the number of failures of fire pumps under their watch. Other practical applications may include increasing the reliability and/or availability of a fire protection system, optimizing inspection, testing and maintenance intervals and calculating probabilistic values for a fire risk assessment. As the use of risk-informed, performance based methods increases, fire protection researchers and engineers continue to improve and apply reliability, availability, and maintainability methods and techniques in the field.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The critical temperature for a steel member is defined as the temperature at which the material properties have decreased to the extent that the steel structural member is no longer capable of carrying a specified load or stress level (SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering, 3rd ed., p. 4–230).

  2. 2.

    This assumption can be relaxed implementing the concept of virtual age [15]. The virtual age is calculated as \( A=q\cdot {\displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^n{t}_i} \). A q value of 0 indicates that the equipment is new. A q value of 1 indicates that the equipment is as old as the last failure, which is the assumption of the NHPP. A q value between 0 and 1 indicates that the equipment is worse than new but better than old. An NHPP developed using the concept of virtual age is described in Krivtsov [11], Hurtado et al. [12], and Yanez et al. [16].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jensen Hughes, Baltimore, USA

    Francisco Joglar

Authors
  1. Francisco Joglar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aon Fire Protection Engineering, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Morgan J. Hurley P.E., FSFPE (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Hughes Associates, Baltimore, USA

    Daniel Gottuk Ph.D., P.E.

  3. National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, USA

    John R. Hall Jr. Ph.D.

  4. Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Kazunori Harada Dr. Eng.

  5. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, USA

    Erica Kuligowski Ph.D.

  6. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, USA

    Milosh Puchovsky P.E., FSFPE

  7. The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia

    José Torero Ph.D.

  8. The Fire Safety Institute, Quincy, USA

    John M. Watts Jr. Ph.D., FSFPE

  9. FM Global, Johnston, USA

    Christopher Wieczorek Ph.D.

Nomenclature, Greek Letters

A

Availability

A

Empirical variable (in Arrhenius life-time relationship)

C i

Cut set i

d

Downtime in availability analysis

E

Activation energy (in Arrhenius life-time relationship)

E(t)

Expected value of variable t

f(t)

Probability distribution function for random variable t

F(t)

Cumulative distribution function for random variable t

fr

Frequency of repair per test interval (in availability analysis)

g(t)

Probability distribution for the repair time

h(t)

Hazard rate of variable t

I

Unit vector (in Markov analysis)

k

Normalizing factor in Bayesian analysis

k

Number of events in Poisson probability distribution

k

Stefan Boltzman constant (in Arrhenius life-time relationship)

L

Vector of initial state conditions (in Markov analysis)

L(t,θ)

Likelihood function for parameters t and θ.

L i

State i (in Markov analysis)

MTTF

Mean time to failure

MTTR

Mean time to repair

N, n

Counter variable usually for number of failures

P i

Path set i

R(t)

Reliability as a function of time

R(t)

Reliability function

S

Stress variable (in inverse power law relationship)

S, s

Stress variable or random variable for stress (stress and strength analysis)

sf

Probabilistic safety factor

s m

Probabilistic safety margin

T

Test interval (in availability analysis)

T

Transition matrix (in Markov analysis)

T

Absolute temperature (in Arrhenius life-time relationship)

T, t

Time variable or random variable for time

T m

Mission time length (in availability analysis)

To

Uptime (in availability analysis)

T R

Average repair time (in availability analysis)

T t

Average test duration (in availability analysis)

u

Laplace or centroid trend indicator(for Laplace or centroid test)

U

Uptime in availability analysis

U

Unavailability

V(t)

Variance of variable t

W(t)

Expected number of failures as a function of time

X

Vector to be solved for (in Markov analysis)

X, x

Strength variable or random variable for strength (stress and strength analysis)

α

Weibull distribution location parameter

α(t)

Availability as a function of time

β

Weibull distribution shape parameter

λ

Constant failure rate and exponential distribution parameter

μ

Normal distribution mean

ν

Degrees of freedom in chi square distribution

π(λ)

Posterior distribution in Bayesian analysis

π o (λ)

Prior distribution of variable ⌊ in Bayesian analysis

σ

Normal distribution standard deviation

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© 2016 Society of Fire Protection Engineers

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Joglar, F. (2016). Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability. In: Hurley, M.J., et al. SFPE Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2565-0_74

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2565-0_74

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-2564-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-2565-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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