A critical look at the bathtub curve

A Critical Discussion on Bath-tub Curve

The typical bathtub curve and its “standard”shape have been widely accepted as an engineering tool in reliability management and training. However, some recent researches reveal that the typical theory of ‘bathtub curve’is not so convincing in some situations. Therefore, a critical discussion is developed to research the bath-tub curve along three significant periods of bath-tub; i.e. infant mo...

Two Methods to Estimate the Change Points of a Bathtub Curve

The failure rate function of non-repairable components can be bathtub shaped. Two change points can be defined for a bathtub failure rate curve, which can be viewed as the partition points between the early use, normal use and wear-out phases. There is practical significance to determine the change points, and several non-parametric methods have been developed for this purpose. This paper prese...

Piecewise modelling and parameter estimation of repairable system failure rate

Lifetime failure data usually presents a bathtub-shaped failure rate, and random failure phase dominates its life cycle. Relatively large errors always existed when single distribution model is used for analysis and modelling. Therefore, a bathtub-shaped reliability model based on piecewise intensity function was proposed for repairable system. Parameter estimation was studied by using maximum ...

A Bathtub Curve from Nonparametric Model

Reliability-Centered Maintenance

In this chapter, we will introduce the basic concepts that constitute what is known as ReliabilityCentered Maintenance. Initially, however, we will briefly discuss how PM has evolved in the industrial world, and most importantly, we will look at how one of the basic tenets of reliability engineering—the “bathtub curve”—can and should influence the formulation of PM tasks. Next, we will look at ...