Application of Kaplan–Meier and Weibull Procedures for Qualitative Assessment of Recycled Aluminum Bronzes

Abstract

The article describes the application of the Kaplan–Meier and Weibull procedures for the qualitative assessment of aluminum bronzes obtained from the remelting of metals (e.g., copper, aluminum, iron, manganese). The analysis was carried out on the example of selected bronzes, evaluating the influence of chemical composition on fatigue strength. Melting kinetics and method of casting alloys as well as the influence of admixtures on the castings’ properties are important for quality assessment of mentioned alloys. The performed analyses of bronze production show that small changes in the technological process can have a significant impact on the content of individual elements in the alloy, thus determining the properties of the cast element. The calculations carried out allowed for the estimation of the "survivability" function, including the probability of failure using fatigue tests on randomly selected samples. The tests carried out showed that the BA1032 alloy withstands a maximum of 4.89 h (out of 5 h assumed during the strength test) of loads with the parameters assumed in the company. The quality of production was improved by applied methods of statistical assessment of chemical composition allowed to obtain the probability of destruction at the level of 6.13%.