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Time-dependent reliability analysis of harmonic drive based on transient FEA and accelerated life test

Xian Zhang (State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing System Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,China and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robots, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China)
Gedong Jiang (State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing System Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,China and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robots, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China)
Hao Zhang (School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robots, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,China)
Xialun Yun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robots, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,China)
Xuesong Mei (State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing System Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an,China and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robots, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China)

Engineering Computations

ISSN: 0264-4401

Article publication date: 3 March 2020

Issue publication date: 18 June 2020

337

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the time-dependent reliability of harmonic drive.

Design/methodology/approach

The transient finite element analysis (FEA) of harmonic drive is established to calculate the stress under different loads. Combined with the residual strength model and random variables, the time-dependent reliability model of harmonic drive is deduced by the stochastic perturbation method and Edgeworth series. Based on accelerated life tests, the degradation parameters are estimated by maximizing likelihood function. Under variable load, the key stress from transient FEA is transformed into probability density function by kernel density estimation, and the residual strength model is modified by adding adjustment factors to deal with strength degradation under different loads.

Findings

The critical position of stress concentration from transient FEA is consistent with the fatigue fracture position at the accelerated life test sample. Compared with the time-dependent reliability method with equivalent circular-shell static stress or empirical degradation parameters, the proposed method has the smallest prediction error of failure life. Under variable load, the state function should be expanded to second-order series for avoiding error items relevant to variance. The failure life expectation under random variable load is smaller than that under constant load.

Originality/value

The time-dependent reliability method of harmonic drive is firstly proposed under constant and variable load. The transient FEA of harmonic drive is established to calculate the stress for strength analysis. The accelerated life test of harmonic drive is conducted for degradation parameters estimation. The adjustment factor is added to the residual strength model for strength degradation under different loads.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51675407) .

Citation

Zhang, X., Jiang, G., Zhang, H., Yun, X. and Mei, X. (2020), "Time-dependent reliability analysis of harmonic drive based on transient FEA and accelerated life test", Engineering Computations, Vol. 37 No. 7, pp. 2293-2317. https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-10-2019-0466

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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