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1.1 Background
1
R. Billinton et al., Reliability Evaluation of Engineering Systems
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1992
2 Reliability evaluation of engineering systems
1976; Bhopal, 1984), and many others, in which failures have resulted in
severe social and environmental consequences and many deaths.
These events have considerably increased pressure to objectively assess
reliability, safety and overall probabilistic risk. Unfortunately risk per-
ceived by the general public is often weighted by emotion, which leaves
certain sectors of industry, particularly the nuclear, in an invidious
position. Society generally has great difficulty in distinguishing between a
hazard, which can be ranked in terms of its severity but does not take
into account its likelihood, and risk, which accounts not only for the
hazardous events but also for their likelihood. Reliability evaluation
techniques can assist in the objective of assessment of these probabilistic
risks and help to account, not only for severity, but also for likelihood.
Modem reliability evaluation techniques are also used in a much wider
range of applications including domestic appliances, automobiles and
other products that individually have little socioeconomic effect when
they fail. Recent trends in both North America and the European
Community are increasing the need to conduct risk and reliability
assessments. These trends centre on the changing laws relating to product
liability in which suppliers, designers and manufacturers are being made
responsible for losses and injuries to customers due to product defects.
Also directives are being issued by governments and regulatory bodies
that relate to adequacy, safety and risk and which involve the consequen-
tial need for objectively assessing probabilistic risk and reliability.
It is evident from this discussion that all engineers should have some
awareness of the basic concepts associated with the application of
reliability evaluation techniques.