Designing mechanical components to a specified reliability and confidence level

A methodology for determining the lower one-sided confidence limit on the reliability, RL1, of mechanical components and structural members is presented. To accomplish this, charts for RL1 values at 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 99% and 99.9% confidence levels are given. A methodology for designing components and structural members to a desired reliability with greater than 50% assurance is proposed. All of these methodologies are illustrated by examples.