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Affidabilità e Sicurezza delle Costruzioni Meccaniche
Reliability and Safety of Mechanical systems
Marco Rossi

Seat Ingegneria
A.A. 2016/2017
Credits 9
Hours 72
Period I
Language ENG

Prerequisites
none

Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
The course enables students to acquire knowledge to critically evaluate a mechanical design in terms of reliability and risk analysis. This knowledge will complement the basic technical education for the engineer's professional role, providing the student with extremely important notions in the mechanical field, notions that are present in most of the scientific and technical problems in the various areas that are the basis of engineering applications and mechanics. In addition, the knowledge received on reliability and safety of mechanical systems will allow the student to interact with specialists from different areas (electronics, computer science, economics) that, under different conditions, face similar problems
CAPACITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
The student needs to demonstrate the ability of selecting and applying suitable analytical and modelling methods, based on the mathematical analysis and numerical methods, in order to simulate the behaviour of components and systems in terms of reliability and safety. This capacity will be evaluated on the basis of a series of vocational skills that the student must have. For instance, the ability of selecting and use tools, procedures and appropriate methods, knowing the limits and potentials of each. During the course, the student is required to solve real practical problems of engineering interest, taken by the current industrial practice. He must be able to assess, in terms of safety and reliability, systems that can also have a high functional complexity, taking into account the implications related to environment, economics and ethics
TRANSVERSAL SKILLS:
The solution of exercises based on engineering data taken from the current industrial practice will improve the student's ability to make independent and informed decisions during his/her professional activities, assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of each possible design choice, and, in particular, estimating the risks for safety and verifying the compliance with the current regulations

Program
The course is divided into three parts: 1. probabilistic and statistical methods: failure functions (Gaussian function, Weibull function, exponential function, etc.), reliability function, failure rate, MTBF. Interpolation of the experimental data, parameter estimation. Reliability of complex mechanical systems. 2. Mechanical design through probabilistic methods. Study of components of interest (vessels, plates, etc.). Choice of the safety factor based on probabilistic considerations. Methods to increase reliability: component selection, testing, derating, redundancy. FMEA and FMECA: examples of preparation of the tables to simple operation of mechanical organs. Fault tree analysis. 3. Understanding the regulation of safety and reliability in the industry.

Development of the examination
LEARNING EVALUATION METHODS
the learning evaluation will be assessed by two tests: - A written test, in which the student must demonstrate knowledge of the tools for studying the reliability of mechanical systems and know how to apply in actual engineering cases. - An oral exam where the topics of the course will be discussed in order to evaluate the level of knowledge of the subject.

LEARNING EVALUATION CRITERIA
the student will be evaluated on the understanding of issues related to the reliability and safety of mechanical systems. In the written exam, he must demonstrate a good knowledge of the studied statistical distributions and he must be able to solve mechanical engineering problems using probabilistic tools. In the oral examination, the student must know the topics described in the course and be able to do critical thinking. The highest vote will be given if, in addition to having successfully passed the exam, the student will demonstrate a complete mastery of the subject, that is not limited to the simple memorization of the topics.

LEARNING MEASUREMENT CRITERIA
The learning measurement will be done on the basis of the results obtained in the final exams and in other verifications conducted during the course.

FINAL MARK ALLOCATION CRITERIA
The final mark will be the average of the marks given to the written and the oral exams. The minimum vote for the written exam that allows the admission to the oral exam is 18/30. Laude will be assigned in case the student shows an outstanding knowledge of the matter during the oral exam.

Recommended reading
Stefano Beretta, ”Affidabilità delle costruzioni meccaniche”, springer 2009

Courses

• Ingegneria Meccanica (Corso di Laurea Magistrale (DM 270/04))