Simulation-Based Reliability Analysis of Automotive Wind Noise Quality 2004-01-0238

An efficient simulation-based method is proposed for the reliability analysis of a vehicle body-door subsystem with respect to an important quality issue -- wind noise. A nonlinear seal model is constructed for the automotive wind noise problem and the limit state function is evaluated using finite element analysis. Existing analytical as well as simulation-based methods are used to solve this problem. A multi-modal adaptive importance sampling method is then developed for reliability analysis at system level. It is demonstrated through this industrial application problem that the multi-modal adaptive importance sampling method is superior to existing methods in terms of efficiency and accuracy. The method can easily handle implicit limit-state functions, with variables of any statistical distributions. A generalized framework for reliability estimation is then established for series system reliability problems with large numbers of random variables and complicated, implicit limit states.