Study of the Reliability of Passenger Cars

Most of the passenger cars inventory owned by the "Passenger Company" branch has already exhausted its service life. Therefore, the issue of maintaining the reliability of the fleet through restorative repairs has become particularly relevant. The article considers the main provisions of the methodology for determining the reliability indicators of passenger car bodies. The remaining service life of a passenger car depends on the service life of its components and parts. A passenger car is considered a complex system consisting of several subsystems. Components with limited testability, the failure of which may lead to the failure of the entire car, transportation incidents, or accidents involving rolling stock, have been identified. In passenger cars, such critical components include: the car body and frame, braking equipment, running gear, and automatic coupling system. All other elements either do not lead to car failure or incur relatively low costs for repair or replacement. The body is considered as the determining element. The corrosion resistance of the car body frame and metal lining of floors, walls and roofs is the main factor determining the technical condition and durability of an all-metal passenger car body. To increase the accuracy of assessing the reliability of the car body, the use of the Rayleigh distribution is proposed. It is proven that this distribution is the most suitable for modeling the probability of failure-free operation of structural elements subject to corrosion wear during operation. An analytical relationship has been derived for the probability of failure-free operation of a passenger car body considering corrosion damage. The article presents an equation for estimating the probability of failure-free operation of a rigid compartment-type passenger car. This makes it possible to subsequently determine the remaining service life and to plan maintenance and repair schedules. The proposed scientific approach takes into account the actual service life and wear level of a passenger car, as well as its type and structural features.