A first proposal of a data-driven reliability life cycle for complex systems

A Design for Reliability approach refers to a procedure including every tool that support a system design. Usually, design for reliability is carried out from early in the concept stage through to product design to ensure that reliability, safety and cost requirements are fully satisfied. In recent literature, all-around Reliability Life Cycle procedures that takes into account the complete system life cycle (from design and development to actual implementation) are rarely dealt with. Others fundamental aspects that are barely taken into account are the importance of measurements and data within the context of a reliability life cycle, and the importance of diagnostic strategies designed along with the system itself. Trying to fill these gaps, the aim of this work is to extend the classical idea of Design for Reliability introducing an innovative data-driven diagnostic-oriented reliability life cycle procedure that integrates different techniques to optimize the reliability of complex industrial systems during both design and operational phases. To test the goodness of the proposed method, the procedure has been applied to the design phase of a yaw system for wind turbines.