Reliability and Physics-of-Healthy in Mechatronics

5Reliability Climatic Test for Composites Based on a Probabilistic Arrhenius Model

This chapter puts forward a methodology to verify the reliability of composite products over their lifetime using a probabilistic Arrhenius model. It will present the challenges that the automotive industry faces and study the potential improvements to be considered in order to improve reliability during the design and validation phases. The formulas developed in this research allow us to set up an accelerated test for the strict necessary needs. The goal is the integration of variability from activation energy (E_a), test conditions (test bench temperature, T_b) and a dispersion from usage temperatures (T_u).

This chapter is structured into four sections:

• – automotive reliability context (reliability: needs and constraints, Arrhenius model presentation);
• – probabilistic Arrhenius model;
• – concrete case application: automotive application;
• – the conclusion analyses the limits and perspectives on this subject.

5.1. Introduction: needs and constraints of automotive reliability

Reliability and the automotive world are intimately linked by their histories (Delaux et al. 2017a, 2017b), their current challenges and their futures. This section will highlight these three aspects taking into account the global context of this ever-changing industry.

There are many publications on reliability with each one casting a different light on the theme (Bertsche 2008; Verma et al. 2010; Delaux et al. 2017a, 2017b). ...