Time-dependent reliability sensitivity analysis of motion mechanisms. (May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wei, Pengfei; Song, Jingwen; Lu, Zhenzhou; Yue, Zhufeng
• Is Part Of: Reliability engineering & system safety. Volume 149(2016:May)
• Page Start: 107
• Page End: 120
• Publication Date: 2016-05
• Subjects: Time-dependent reliability -- Parametric reliability sensitivity -- Global reliability sensitivity -- Envelope function -- Rack-and-pinion steering linkage; Reliability (Engineering) -- Periodicals; System safety -- Periodicals; Industrial safety -- Periodicals; Fiabilité -- Périodiques; Sécurité des systèmes -- Périodiques; Sécurité du travail -- Périodiques; 620.00452
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2015.12.019
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0951-8320

Abstract

Abstract: Reliability sensitivity analysis aims at identifying the source of structure/mechanism failure, and quantifying the effects of each random source or their distribution parameters on failure probability or reliability. In this paper, the time-dependent parametric reliability sensitivity (PRS) analysis as well as the global reliability sensitivity (GRS) analysis is introduced for the motion mechanisms. The PRS indices are defined as the partial derivatives of the time-dependent reliability w.r.t. the distribution parameters of each random input variable, and they quantify the effect of the small change of each distribution parameter on the time-dependent reliability. The GRS indices are defined for quantifying the individual, interaction and total contributions of the uncertainty in each random input variable to the time-dependent reliability. The envelope function method combined with the first order approximation of the motion error function is introduced for efficiently estimating the time-dependent PRS and GRS indices. Both the time-dependent PRS and GRS analysis techniques can be especially useful for reliability-based design. This significance of the proposed methods as well as the effectiveness of the envelope function method for estimating the time-dependent PRS and GRS indices are demonstrated with a four-bar mechanism and a car rack-and-pinion steering linkage. Highlights: Time-dependent parametric reliability sensitivity analysis is presented. Time-dependent global reliability sensitivity analysis is presented for mechanisms. The proposed method is especially useful for enhancing the kinematic reliability. An envelope method is introduced for efficiently implementing the proposed methods. The proposed method is demonstrated by two real planar mechanisms.