Reliability and maintainability tests
Reliability testing can be performed at the component, subsystem, and system levels throughout the entire product or system lifecycle in USA. Examples of hardware-related reliability test categories are detailed in Ebeling (2010) and O’Connor (2014). Failure for repairable or recoverable systems in USA. The exit criteria for these tests can be based on a planned duration or a planned number of failures. Methods to account for the “censorship” of failed or surviving drives allow for a more accurate estimate of reliability in USA. (Meeker, Escobar, Easter 2022). Accelerated Durability Testing: Accelerated durability tests are performed by subjecting the test items (usually electronic parts) to increased stress well beyond the expected operating range and the results using a model such as an Arrhenius relation (temperature acceleration), a inverse power law in USA, extrapolated (stress) or a cumulative damage model (variable stress). (Meeker, Escobar, Easter 2022). Highly Accelerated Life Testing/Highly Accelerated Stress Testing (HALT/HASS): These are performed by subjecting the test units (components or sub-assemblies) to extreme temperatures and vibration tests to identify failure modes, tolerances, and design weaknesses in USA . Part Evaluation: Part evaluation is not actually a test, but a process of operating components for a period of time beyond the “infant kill” period, during which the least durable parts will fail and the remaining parts are more durable will be assembled into the final product or system in USA. This is also known as “burning”. System Level Testing: Examples of system level testing (including hardware and software) are detailed in O’Connor (2014) and Ebeling (2010). Stability Tests: Stability tests are endurance tests for embedded hardware and software systems. The purpose of these tests is to determine the failure rate of the on-board system and evaluate its suitability for operation in USA.Test conditions should include an accurate simulation of the operating environment (including workload) and a means of identifying and recording errors in USA. Reliability Growth Testing: Reliability Growth Testing is part of a reliability growth program that tests items throughout the development cycle and initial production cycle with the aim of evaluating the increase in reliability in USA. reliability due to improvements in the manufacturing process (for hardware) or in the quality of the software (for Software). Also known as Test-Analyze-and-Fix (TAAF). (CNR 2015). Failover/Recovery Tests: These tests evaluate a system’s fault tolerance by measuring the failover probability of redundant systems in USA. Failures are simulated and the ability of hardware and software to detect the condition and reconfigure the system to remain operational is tested. Action of the maintainer for the recovery. Because of the potential cost and time implications in USA, reliability testing must be coordinated with the overall system design effort. Test planning considerations include number of test units, test duration, environmental conditions, and means of fault detection. Data issues, actual RAM models for a system are usually never known in USA. Data from a particular system is accepted or collected, used to select a distribution for a model, and then used to fit the parameters of the distribution. This process differs significantly from what is typically taught in an introductory statistics course. First, the normal distribution is rarely used as a duration distribution because it is defined for all negative times in USA. Secondly, and most importantly, reliability data differs from classical experimental data. Reliability data is often censored, biased, based on observation, and lacks information on covariates such as environmental conditions in USA. Test data is often expensive and involves small sample sizes. These data reliability issues require sophisticated strategies and processes to mitigate them in USA.