Failure modeling and reliability analysis for motion mechanism with clearance joints under plastic deformation and wear

The performance failure and reliability of motion mechanism has a significant effect on industry reliability, operation safety and production economy. Motion precise is one of the typical performance indicators especially for motion mechanism with multibody and joints. Size of joint clearance degenerates with usage such as wear and deformation. Repeated start-stop lead to impact stress and plastic deformation for clearance joint particularly for mechanism with high load and long working cycles. This study attempts to investigate the wear process and performance failure model of multibody mechanism with clearance joints considering plastic deformation and wear. Quantification of plastic deformation caused by repeated impact stress of joints is studied by formulation. Then, a novel wear process model is established, after which performance failure indicator is conducted. A linkage motion mechanism with multi revolution joints is studied to demonstrate proposed methods. This study provides valuable guidelines for degeneration prediction and reliability analysis of motion mechanism.