Reliability of Structural System for Vehicles Using Stochastic Finite Element Method

The model involving uncertainty of structures and loads is closer to real structure in structural analysis to vehicle frame structures. Considering bending, torsion, braking suddenly and steering quickly working conditions, the method which analyses the reliability of strength of bus body is proposed by fundamental theories of structural system reliability in this paper. Moreover, the branch-and-boundary algorithm is introduced to get significant failure modes. Bus body structure is considered as a series system which consists of significant failure modes and the PNET method is discussed to effectively calculate the system reliability. Finally, programs have been developed, and the reliability of structural system for a bus body has been figured out. The results indicate that the method is effective for reliability analysis of vehicles and it provides the foundation for reliability-based vehicle body structure lightened design.