Reliability of Aircraft Splines With or Without a Wear Induction Period

Mathematical models are developed for the wear-life distributions of aircraft splines which provide equations for predicting their reliability when spline-tooth wear is the failure mode under consideration. The procedure for determining the distributions of wear for specified operating times and of time for specified amounts of spline-tooth wear is presented. Five examples on the use of these distributional data to predict the reliability of aircraft splines and their maintenance schedules are given.