Vehicle durability is related to its long-term performance. In order to assess the vehicle, subsystems and components expected life, those are subjected to extreme conditions to identify possible issues, detecting its causes and consequences, in order to reach a desired standard of excellence in the future.
In the context, durability tests have been facing new challenges: Not only Vehicle development cycles have been reduced, but also there is a strong demand for weight reduction. Therefore, increasing the assertiveness of test parameters is a key factor in achieving these two demands.
The present study aims to develop a method that allows the correlation between the durability tests and the customer use profile. Thus, it will be possible to determine a durability target aligned to the actual damage load which the vehicles are subjected, setting the test severity level to represent the customer demand.