RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF AUTOMOTIVE MAGNETORHEOLOGICAL BRAKE: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH

Magnetorheological (MR) brake technology, owing to its reduced response delay, has generated interest for its potential as substitute to conventional hydraulic brakes in a road vehicle. Recently, few investigations have been carried out to assess its application for a mid size car. Finite element studies and experimental investigations have been carried out by researchers. However, reliability aspect of these brakes doesn't seem to have been explored as yet. This paper makes an attempt to present findings of the qualitative reliability studies on MR brake system for vehicular application. Results of Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) have been presented and discussed subsequently. Findings of this analysis, it is believed, shall complement the design process and make it fool proof. It also provides basis for further quantitative reliability estimation, in case of availability of failure data of MR brake system components.