Analytical Approach to Product Reliability Estimation Based on Life Test Data for an Automotive Clutch System

Abstract The study of reliability is an important part of engineering design process which forms the basis of analysis and judgment on future performance of the product. Since the future couldn’t be predicted with an absolute certainty, the nature of reliability would lead us to probability theory and uncertainty modeling. The quantitative calculation of this parameter for mechanical systems within different steps of production requires an analytical and systematic approach which has been focused in this paper. The proposed approach has been applied for calculating reliability of a clutch system as a case study. The system reliability in this work is determined based on the block diagram method as a function of individual component reliabilities which are calculated by statistical analysis of life test results. Using Weibull model, reliability of a typical clutch system has been formulated based on durability bench test and results has been interpreted to estimate field reliability.