
121Reliability Engineering
4.3 Failure Modes and System Reliability
System reliability is a function of the reliabilities of the components compos-
ing it. To determine it, though, we will need to know, in addition to compo-
nent reliabilities, which combination of component failures leads to system
failure and which does not. Each combination of failed components that also
leads to system failure is called a failure mode of the system. To determine the
failure modes, one needs to understand connectivities between components.
Let us start with a two-component system. If failure of either of the compo-
nents leads to system failure, the components ...