Reliability Assessment of Photoelectric Smoke Detector, Ionization Smoke Detector and a Fire Alarm Control Panel with Both Detectors AS Notification Device

Abstract

Notification device like smoke detectors are critical and important part of a Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP). Popularly used smoke alarms in commercial establishments in India are photoelectric smoke alarms (PESD) and ionization smoke alarms (ISD). In this study reliability assessments of PESD with Integrated Circuit (IC) – MC145010 and ISD with IC – MC145017 have been carried out on the basis of reliabilities of their respective electronic components. The cases considered are: (I) Failure rates of all components are equal and constant over time (II) Failure rates of all components are equal and follow Weibull distribution and (III) Failure rates of all components are different. To determine failure rates of 9 volt battery of both detectors additional assumptions taken are, (a) battery life is 10 years with constant failure rate, (b) battery life follows Weibull distribution. In this paper the reliability and failure rate of two types of smoke alarms have been calculated based on failure rates of their electronic parts like resistors, capacitors, Integrated Circuits etc. These failure rates have been subsequently used for reliability assessment of a non-addressable FACP containing four PESDs and four ISDs as notification device. A comparison of failure rates was also performed on the basis of two quality factors of electronic components – military specific and lower than military specific. Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) of PESD and ISD have been calculated in all the cases. Subsequently, MTTF values obtained in case III were used to approximate failure rates for case I case II.