Reliability tradeoffs of a complex mechatronic system in the early design stage
Saeed Behbahani, Clarence Wilfred de Silva · International Journal of Manufacturing Research · 2007
Reliability is an important criterion in designing a new machine, and in making decisions about the operation, maintenance, and repair policies of existing machines. A systematic framework for realistic reliability assessment of repairable mixed system (multidomain) machinery is presented in this paper, with the objective of providing information for proper decision making. The method presented here is based on intuitive severity assessment of failure modes using Choquet fuzzy integral. A Petri Net simulation technique is employed to mimic the dynamic architecture of the system and take into account the dynamic interactions between the system components. The performance of the proposed methodology is validated by applying it to an industrial fish cutting machine the Iron Butcher, which falls into the class of multidomain systems. Methods to improve the reliability of a mixed system are represented and the performance of the proposed methodology is validated by demonstrating its ability to reflect axiomatic expectations.