Abstract
Since the main design parameters in a mechanical component design have some uncertainties and should be treated as random variables, the reliability of a component is a better measurement of the safe status of a component. A component will not be reliable unless it is designed with specified reliability. Therefore, the mechanical component design should be a dimension design with the required reliability. The fundamental concept of the Monte Carlo method is to plug-in randomly generated numerical values into the governing equation of a design problem to get a trial result. The Monte Carlo method has become so powerful numerical simulation approach in almost every field such as optimization, numerical integration, and reliability calculation. But for reliability engineering, most of the literature shows how to use the Monte Carlo method to calculate the reliability of a component. This paper will propose the modified Monte Carlo method to determine a component dimension with required reliability. This paper first discusses and establishes typical limit state functions of a component under static loads. These limit state functions cover two failure modes including the failure mode due to strength and the failure mode due to excessive deformation. Then, the procedure and the flowchart of the modified Monte Carlo method will be explained in detail. The provided procedure and the flowchart are easy to be followed for compiling a MATLAB program to conduct a dimension design with required reliability. Two examples will show how to implement the proposed new method for conducting a dimension design with required reliability.