Reliability Evaluation Method under Time-varying Environment

Abstract

The Accelerated Degradation Test (ADT) is an effective technique for estimating the lifetime of a highly reliable product. In the modeling research based on ADT data, the usual practice is to assume that the product uses environmental conditions to be constant and extrapolate its life. However, the environmental conditions are not constant but change with time. Therefore, this paper considers the time-varying characteristics of different geographical environments and actual environmental conditions of products, and establishes a degradation model with time-varying environmental stress to evaluate the reliable life of products. In the case study, an electromechanical product control circuit board was taken as the research object, and its ADT data, temperature and humidity data of Gansu Province, Hainan Province and Heilongjiang Province were used to verify the different effects of regional environmental changes. The results demonstrate that changes in the local environment have a large impact on the reliable life of the product.