Aims
Reliability is a critical aspect of mechanical systems, that requires much attention from the earliest phases of design. The designer should be aware of the methods that are used to predict and verify reliability. The objective of the course is to provide the student with basic understanding of reliability aspects in engineering, and to give insight into methodologies to perform system reliability analysis. Specific focus is on reliability aspects of space projects, ranging from mechanical reliability to avionics and software reliability.
Reliability of Mechanical Systems: Lecture
After successful completion of this course, the student has proven to know and understand the meaning of standard terminology in reliability analysis techniques. He is able to select specific distribution types for different classes of reliability problems, and to apply probability theory on these in order to perform the time dependent reliability analysis of mechanical components. He is able to analyze testing data with respect to the lifetime of a mechanical component, and to transform this information into standard distributions that serve as input for the reliability assessment on the system level. He is able to quantify the reliability of a complex built-up mechanical system, starting from the analysis on the component level, using quantitative techniques. He can apply Markov process modeling for time dependent reliability assessment of systems including repair and maintenance. He is able to describe the main properties of qualitative and semi-quantitative techniques for system analysis, to apply the principles of these methodologies on basic problems, and to critically assess their value in a mechanical engineering context.
In the framework of fatigue analysis, the student can derive and interpret typical material properties for stress-based approaches, he has insight into the sensitivity of these properties with respect to operational conditions, and is able to apply the stress-based approach for the assessment of the lifetime of a mechanical component that is under regular and irregular time dependent loading, for uni-axial as well as multi-axial stress conditions. The student further knows how stress-based analysis can be extended to the strain-based approach, he can derive and knows how to interpret the corresponding material properties, and knows when and how to apply this technique for the assessment of the lifetime of a mechanical component. The student understands the basic principles of damage tolerant design, and knows how to apply the theoretical principles of linear fracture mechanics in this context.
Finally, the student knows how to apply the principles of strength-load interference in the context of mechanical design. He has insight in the meaning of the concept ‘reliability index’, and can explain how this concept can be generalized in a more generic mechanical design context with multiple design parameters, and how this can be applied making use of numerical simulation techniques. He knows the principles of analytical as well as sampling strategies to estimate the reliability index, and can critically assess the application of these approaches in the context of a specific design problem. He knows how these approaches can be integrated in a framework of reliability based design optimization.
Reliability of Space Systems
The objectives are:
to get acquainted with the space project specific aspects of dependability and reliability.
to get acquiainted with the space software dependability and reliability.
to get experience in analysing failure modes.
Content
Module 1.3 ects. Reliability of Space Systems (B-KUL-G0L94a)
1. Space product assurance & dependability
Dependability throughout the project life cycle
Dependability risk analysis control
Critical Items List
Subsystem dependability
Reliability analysis
Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
Failure Detection Identification and Recovery (FDIR)
Space system specific reliability challenges
2. Software reliability
Introduction to Software Engineering
Documentation in different software phases
Software Dependability and Safety
Software Configuration Management
Software Quality Assurance
Software Verification
Software Testing
3. Case Study FMEA/FMECA
Module 2.7 ects. Reliability of Mechanical Systems: Lecture (B-KUL-H04Y2a)
In this course, students are challenged to apply their knowledge on engineering mechanics in the context of reliability, focusing on design, production as well as maintenance of mechanical systems. The course covers general theoretical aspects for reliability prediction, analysis, verification and optimization in mechanical engineering:
1. General introduction to reliability: identification of factors that are important for reliability analysis
2. Basic elements of reliability: definitions, distributions, time independent and time dependent reliability models
3. System reliability: combined failure modes, serial and parallel systems, redundancy, reliability calculations based on minimal cuts and maximal paths, Markov chains and processes, modeling of systems with repair and maintenance
4. Analysis methods: FMECA, risk analysis, event and failure tree analysis
5. Reliability in design: load-strength interference, uncertainty modeling and processing techniques, reliability estimation in design, analytical prediction techniques, sampling techniques, reliability based design optimization
6. Fatigue and life time prediction: stress based fatigue analysis, strain based approach, damage tolerant design based on linear fracture mechanics and crack propagation
More information at: https://onderwijsaanbod.kuleuven.be/syllabi/e/G0L94AE.htm#activetab=doelstellingen_idp35840