Designing Faultless Mechanical Products Based on Advanced Reliability Analysis

Seongwoo Woo earned BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering and earned a PhD in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, USA. His major interests include energy systems, such as HVAC and heat transfer, the optimal design and control of refrigerators, the reliability design of mechanical components, and failure analysis of thermal components in the marketplace using nondestructive methods, such as scanning electron microscopy and X-rays. In particular, he has developed parametric accelerated life testing (ALT) as a new reliability methodology, which determines whether there is a design fault in a mechanical system that is subjected to repetitive stress. Using parametric ALT, engineers can find design faults before the product is launched and thus avoid failures. From 1992 to 1997, Dr. Woo worked in the Agency for Defense Development in Chinhae, South Korea, where he was the researcher in charge of the development of naval weapons systems. From 2000 to 2010, he worked as a senior reliability engineer in the Side-by-Side Refrigerator Division, Digital Appliances, Samsung Electronics, where he focused on enhancing the lifetimes of refrigerators using parametric ALT. He is currently a professor in the Mechanical Department, Ethiopian Technical University, Addis Ababa.