A Novel Approach for Accelerated Life Testing of Ground Vehicle Components

Accelerated life testing has major impact on the success of a ground vehicle development program. Accelerated life testing profile should represent the customer usage so that optimum design can be achieved. A novel approach incorporating finite element analysis and vehicle durability test data into single axis accelerated life test profile generation was developed in this study. The proposed approach was successfully applied to the engine mount bracket of a heavy duty truck engine and it is validated by vehicle and rig tests. The accelerated life testing procedure developed in this study is applicable to many components of ground vehicles. It is possible to test components at high confidence level and low cost with this approach.