Accelerated Testing and Validation Methods is a cross-disciplinary guide that describes testing and validation tools and techniques throughout the product development process. Alex Porter not only focuses on what information is needed but also on what tools can produce the information in a timely manner. From the information provided, engineers and managers can determine what data is needed from a test and validation program and then how to select the best, most effective methods for obtaining the data.This book integrates testing and validation methods with a business perspective so readers can understand when, where, and how such methods can be economically justified. Testing and validation is about generating key information at the correct time so that sound business and engineering decisions can be made. Rather than simply describing various testing and validation techniques, the author offers readers guidance on how to select the best tools for a particular need, explains the appropriateness of different techniques to various situations and shows how to deploy them to ensure the desired information is accurately gathered. - Emphasizes developing a strategy for testing and validation - Teaches how to design a testing and validation program that deliver information in a timely and cost-effective manner

From the Foreword Accelerated Testing: Nature and Artificial Weathering in the Coatings Industry is aimed at all those involved or interested in creating, producing, applying, and testing modern high-quality coatings for outdoor use. Coatings are exposed to a great many severe natural stresses that cause a gradual deterioration of the properties which are responsible for the coatings' very quality. Nevertheless, buyers expect coated products to remain in an as-new condition -- which is mostly characterised by a highly attractive appearance and intact surface -- for as long as possible. This calls for coatings of high weatherability and long service life. In this book, accelerated testing, through its simulation of the destructive action of natural weathering, is the means for testing this coating quality. Test engineers shoulder much responsibility because not only must the results form the basis for reliable predictions, but they must also be obtained economically and as quickly as possible. Their results are the dominant factor in any decision to take a new coating creation into series production. Accelerated testing has become an indispensable tool in the paint and coatings chemistry as a means of avoiding nasty surprises by coatings in normal use. Other methods of predicting service life are still too unreliable, given the extent of current weathering knowledge. Modern-day, high-quality coatings are highly complex systems which contain numerous essential additives. Not surprisingly, coatings chemistry is therefore sometimes jokingly likened to alchemy. But natural weathering, in all its random manifestations of different impact, is equally complex. Words alone cannot describe how best to simulate the team-like interaction of such a complex system in the laboratory. There is more to successful simulation than applying a standardized test method, or switching on a fully controlled weathering device which has been marketed as an all-rounder. It takes know-how, experience and skill. This book will help such abilities to be acquired.

The application of accelerated testing theory is a difficult proposition, yet one that can result in considerable time and cost savings, as well as increasing a product's useful life. In Accelerated Testing: A Practitioner's Guide to Accelerated and Reliability Testing, readers are exposed to the latest, most practical knowledge available in this dynamic and important discipline. Authors Bryan Dodson and Harry Schwab draw on their considerable experience in the field to present comprehensive, insightful views in this book. Development and quality assurance tests are defined in detail and are presented from a practical viewpoint. Included are testing fundamentals, plans and models, and equipment and methods most commonly used in accelerated testing. Individuals seeking to evaluate and improve the design lives of components and systems will find this book a valuable reference, with special attention being paid to testing in the mobility industries.

Accelerated testing (most types of laboratory testing, proving ground testing, intensive field/flight testing, any experimental research) is increasingly a key component for predicting of product's/process performance. Trends in Development Accelerated Testing for Automotive and Aerospace Engineering provides a completely updated analysis of the current status of accelerated testing, including the basic general directions of testing (methods and equipment) development, how one needs to study real world conditions for their accurate simulation and successful accelerated testing, describes in details the role of accurate simulation in the development of automotive and aerospace engineering, shows that failures are most often found in the interconnections, step-by-step instructions and examples. This is the only book presently available that considers in detail both the positive and negative trends in testing development for prediction quality, reliability, safety, durability, maintainability, supportability, profit, and decreasing life-cycle cost, recalls, complaints and other performance components of the product. The author presents new ideas and offers a unique strategic approach to obtaining solutions which were not possible using earlier. His methodology has been widely implemented, continue to be adopted throughout the world, and leads to advance society through product improvement that can reduce loss of life, injuries, financial losses, and product recalls. It also covers new ideas in development positive and cost- effective trends in testing development, especially accelerated reliability and durability testing (ART/ADT), which includes integration accurate simulation of field/flight influences, safety, human factors, and leads to successful prediction of product performance during pre-design, design, manufacturing, and usage for the product's service life. Engineers, researchers, teachers and postgraduate/advanced students who are involved in automotive and aerospace engineering will find this a useful reference on how to apply the accelerated testing method to solve practical problems in these areas. - Explains the similarities and differences between accelerated testing technologies used in automotive, aerospace, and other engineering fields - Provides a step-by-step guide for the accurate physical simulation of field conditions for test subjects - Includes case studies of accelerated testing in automotive and aerospace engineering

A high percentage of defense systems fail to meet their reliability requirements. This is a serious problem for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), as well as the nation. Those systems are not only less likely to successfully carry out their intended missions, but they also could endanger the lives of the operators. Furthermore, reliability failures discovered after deployment can result in costly and strategic delays and the need for expensive redesign, which often limits the tactical situations in which the system can be used. Finally, systems that fail to meet their reliability requirements are much more likely to need additional scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and to need more spare parts and possibly replacement systems, all of which can substantially increase the life-cycle costs of a system. Beginning in 2008, DOD undertook a concerted effort to raise the priority of reliability through greater use of design for reliability techniques, reliability growth testing, and formal reliability growth modeling, by both the contractors and DOD units. To this end, handbooks, guidances, and formal memoranda were revised or newly issued to reduce the frequency of reliability deficiencies for defense systems in operational testing and the effects of those deficiencies. "Reliability Growth" evaluates these recent changes and, more generally, assesses how current DOD principles and practices could be modified to increase the likelihood that defense systems will satisfy their reliability requirements. This report examines changes to the reliability requirements for proposed systems; defines modern design and testing for reliability; discusses the contractor's role in reliability testing; and summarizes the current state of formal reliability growth modeling. The recommendations of "Reliability Growth" will improve the reliability of defense systems and protect the health of the valuable personnel who operate them.

The application of accelerated testing theory is a difficult proposition, yet one that can result in considerable time and cost savings, as well as increasing a product's useful life. In Accelerated Testing: A Practitioner's Guide to Accelerated and Reliability Testing, readers are exposed to the latest, most practical knowledge available in this dynamic and important discipline. Authors Bryan Dodson and Harry Schwab draw on their considerable experience in the field to present comprehensive, insightful views in this book. Development and quality assurance tests are defined in detail and are presented from a practical viewpoint. Included are testing fundamentals, plans and models, and equipment and methods most commonly used in accelerated testing. Individuals seeking to evaluate and improve the design lives of components and systems will find this book a valuable reference, with special attention being paid to testing in the mobility industries.

Next Generation HALT and HASS presents a major paradigm shift from reliability prediction-based methods to discovery of electronic systems reliability risks. This is achieved by integrating highly accelerated life test (HALT) and highly accelerated stress screen (HASS) into a physics-of-failure-based robust product and process development methodology. The new methodologies challenge misleading and sometimes costly mis-application of probabilistic failure prediction methods (FPM) and provide a new deterministic map for reliability development. The authors clearly explain the new approach with a logical progression of problem statement and solutions. The book helps engineers employ HALT and HASS by illustrating why the misleading assumptions used for FPM are invalid. Next, the application of HALT and HASS empirical discovery methods to quickly find unreliable elements in electronics systems gives readers practical insight to the techniques. The physics of HALT and HASS methodologies are highlighted, illustrating how they uncover and isolate software failures due to hardware-software interactions in digital systems. The use of empirical operational stress limits for the development of future tools and reliability discriminators is described. Key features: * Provides a clear basis for moving from statistical reliability prediction models to practical methods of insuring and improving reliability. * Challenges existing failure prediction methodologies by highlighting their limitations using real field data. * Explains a practical approach to why and how HALT and HASS are applied to electronics and electromechanical systems. * Presents opportunities to develop reliability test discriminators for prognostics using empirical stress limits. * Guides engineers and managers on the benefits of the deterministic and more efficient methods of HALT and HASS. * Integrates the empirical limit discovery methods of HALT and HASS into a physics of failure based robust product and process development process.