Component and System Life Distribution Prediction with Reliability Demonstration Implications for a Diesel Fuel Injector

A vehicle case study is used to illustrate a methodology of analysis and testing to predict component and system reliability and durability. The methodology integrates customer usage data, component failure distribution, system failure criteria, manufacturing variation, and customer severity variation. Extending this methodology to the vehicle system level enables correlation between component and system requirements. Further, this analysis provides the basis to establish a knowledge-based test option for a successful test validation program to demonstrate reliability.