Reliability Analysis of Military Vehicles Based on Censored Failures Data

Abstract

The paper proposes a methodology of reliability testing as applied to vehicles used in military transport systems. After estimating the value of the reliability function using the Kaplan– Meier estimator, reliability models were developed and analysed. The neural model, which achieved the value of the correlation coefficient R exceeding 0.99, was determined to fit the empirical data the best. On the basis of the approximated reliability function of several models, the reliability characteristics of the tested sample of vehicles were determined. Plots of the failure probability density function for all three models had similar courses over a significant part of the function domain. A failure intensity function was also determined, which varied between models. For the exponential and Weibull model, the expected mileage between failures was calculated, which proved impossible for the neural model. The proposed methodology is capable of modelling reliability characteristics based on the observation of an assumed period of the exploitation process of the selected group of military vehicles.