Citation

Wannenburg J, Heyns PS. Int. J. Veh. Des. 2008; 47(1/2/3/4): 269-289.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

10.1504/IJVD.2008.020891

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A methodology is presented to derive a statistical fatigue loading profile of the total population of users of a vehicle model, from failure data recorded on the same or a previous model. The method is based on fitting a bivariate probability density function on normalised failure data. This is radically more economic than existing methods. Reasonable accuracy could be achieved, even if the failures represent only a small fraction of the total population. The two-parameter usage profile determined in this way offers a powerful approach to predict failures or derive statistically based durability test or design requirements.