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Design of Engineering Products & Systems with High Reliability & Resilience

Dr. Zhimin Xi
ISE Professor
University of Tennessee
Friday, February 3rd  2:30-3:30pm
JDT 410

 

Abstract

Currently, most engineering systems are designed with a passive and fixed design capacity and, therefore, may become unreliable in the presence of adverse events. Recently, proactive maintenance decisions have been enabled through the development of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) methods that detect, diagnose, and predict the effects of adverse events. Capitalizing on PHM technology at an early design stage can transform passively reliable systems into adaptively reliable (or resilient) systems while considerably reducing their life cycle cost. On the other hand, computer simulation models are extensively employed for various research purposes without considering the fact that there is no perfect model that can approximate the real physical system without any error. Our research shows that significant design error could be introduced by ignoring the model error. Methodologies in PHM and statistical model validation are hence proposed to design reliable and resilient engineering products and systems. Case studies including the vehicle structure design, lithium-ion battery, bearing systems, and aircraft engine will be presented to demonstrate the proposed methodology.

Bio

Zhimin Xi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. He received his B.S. and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Science and Technology Beijing in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering at the University of Maryland – College Park in 2010. His research interests include system reliability analysis, design optimization under uncertainty, prognostics and health management of engineering systems, model validation under uncertainty, human factors in system safety and reliability, and design of engineering resilient systems. His recent research applications focus on addressing reliability, safety, and quality issues for lithium-ion batteries, autonomous vehicles, and additive manufacturing. He has published more than 50 papers in prestigious journals and peer-reviewed conference proceedings. He is the recipient of 2016 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) – Young Faculty Award. He is the winners of multiple (including twice Top 10) Best Paper Awards from ASME – Design Automation Conference in 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2015 respectively. His research is supported by National Science Foundation, DARPA, Department of Energy, Ford Motor Company, Denso North American Foundation, and The Woodbridge Group.