Robust Design of Reliability Test Plans Using Degradation Measures.

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1159448· OSTI ID:1159448

Lane, Jonathan Wesley; Lane, Jonathan Wesley; Crowder, Stephen V.; Crowder, Stephen V.

With short production development times, there is an increased need to demonstrate product reliability relatively quickly with minimal testing. In such cases there may be few if any observed failures. Thus, it may be difficult to assess reliability using the traditional reliability test plans that measure only time (or cycles) to failure. For many components, degradation measures will contain important information about performance and reliability. These measures can be used to design a minimal test plan, in terms of number of units placed on test and duration of the test, necessary to demonstrate a reliability goal. Generally, the assumption is made that the error associated with a degradation measure follows a known distribution, usually normal, although in practice cases may arise where that assumption is not valid. In this paper, we examine such degradation measures, both simulated and real, and present non-parametric methods to demonstrate reliability and to develop reliability test plans for the future production of components with this form of degradation.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1159448
• Report Number(s): SAND2014-18325; 537897
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English