ABSTRACT
The analysis of cracks within structures is an important application if the damage tolerance and durability of structures and components are to be predicted. As part of the engineering design process, engineers have to assess not only how well the design satisfies the performance requirements, but also how durable the product will be over its life cycle. Often, cracks cannot be avoided in structures; however, the fatigue life of the structure depends on the location and size of these cracks. To predict the fatigue life for any component, a fatigue life and crack growth analysis must be performed. The solder joint failure data of a given component type, component finish, and solder alloy were evaluated using Weibull analysis. Lifetime analysis of the second-level fatigue failures was performed using two-parameter Weibull distributions with median rank regression. The characteristic lifetime, or Eta, is the number of cycles at which 63.2% of the sample set has failed.
