Identification of Reliability Models for Non-repairable Railway Component

The reliability analysis of technical object, particularly determine the lifetime distributions over time, requires knowledge of the course of functional characteristics of elements included in a given system. Having a database of damage times for individual components, it is easy to determine the average working time to damage the element and the standard deviation for this time, the problem arises when selecting the appropriate form of distribution. Incorrect determination of the type of damage distribution of technical object elements may cause a large error in the results of the reliability and durability assessment of the system. Not having enough data to verify the hypothesis of the form of distribution, commonly, depending on the case considered, the form of the density function of damage or cumulative distribution is assumed. Knowing the course of the probability of damage over time, preventive actions can be taken before the risk of damage reaches the limit value, thus avoiding financial losses and ensuring an adequate level of security. The paper presents methods for assessing the reliability of tested elements for the first failure using the most commonly used distributions in the reliability theory. The results of calculations were compared for several cases. The calculations were carried out for selected components of the rail vehicle.