Failure mechanism-based reliability assessment framework: a case study in an automotive component

This paper presents a framework for failure mechanism-based reliability assessment, starting from collecting failed field samples. The framework includes failure analysis for identifying the failure mechanism and accelerated life tests (ALTs) for reproducing the failure mechanism. We consider that relevant information, such as warranty data and qualification test results, enables to be utilized in the framework. The proposed framework is validated by using it to identify the failure mechanism and estimate the lifetime of an automotive component under normal use conditions. The case study shows that the framework enables to quantitatively assess reliability based on the failure mechanism.