Collaborative Research: Design of Equivalent Accelerated Life Testing Plans Involving Single or Multiple Stresses

随着新产品的推出，加上从产品设计到制造的时间大大缩短，以及客户对高可靠性和更长保修期的期望不断提高，促使行业缩短其产品测试时间。 在许多情况下，产品原型的测试可能需要几个月甚至几年的时间才能进行实际生产。 在许多情况下，使产品样品经受极端条件的加速寿命测试可能是评估产品是否满足预期长期可靠性要求的唯一可行方法。 因此，从这样的测试可靠性估计的准确性有深远的影响，对系统配置，保修和预防性维护计划的后续决策。 测试实施不当可能导致产品发布延迟、整个产品终止或产品实际使用中的灾难性故障。 在各种工业应用中，在进行测试时，应力载荷可能有许多选择。 每种应力加载都有一些优点和缺点。 这就提出了许多实际问题，涉及不同应力载荷的各种加速试验计划之间的等效性。 当涉及多重应力时，问题变得更加困难。 为了克服这些挑战，我们建议调查和贡献的基本和理论模型，并提供一些统计工具，以方便实际的可靠性测试。将建立在各种应力载荷下，特别是在复杂应力和多重应力条件下的加速试验计划的新框架。如果成功，研究成果将填补行业所需的可靠性评估的主要空白。 特别是，结果将使工业设计有效和经济的测试计划，而测试的结果将提供准确的可靠性估计。 将开发的工具将便利和进一步促进现代工业中加速寿命试验的实施。

The surge in the introduction of new products coupled with the significant reduction in time from product design to manufacturing, as well as the ever increasing customer's expectation for high reliability and longer warranties have prompted industry to shorten its product test duration. In many cases, the testing of the products prototypes can take months and even years before actual production takes place. In many situations, accelerated life testing which subjects the product samples to extreme conditions might be the only viable approach to assess whether the product meets the expected long term reliability requirements. As a result, the accuracy of reliability estimates from such testing has a profound effect on the subsequent decisions regarding system configuration, warranties and preventive maintenance schedules. Inappropriate implementation of the test might cause delays in product release, termination of the entire product or catastrophic failures in the actual use of the product. In a variety of industrial applications, there could be many choices in stress loadings when conducting testing. Each stress loading has some advantages and drawbacks. This has raised many practical questions regarding the equivalence among various accelerating test plans involving different stress loadings. The problem becomes more difficult when multiple stresses are involved. To overcome these challenges, we propose to investigate and contribute fundamental and theoretical models and provide several statistical tools to facilitate practical reliability tests. New framework for planning accelerated testing under various stress loadings, especially under complex stress and multiple stresses conditions, will be established. If successful, the research results will fill a major gap in reliability assessment needed by industry. Especially, the results will enable industry to design efficient and economical test plans, yet the results of the test will provide accurate reliability estimates. The tools to be developed will facilitate and further promote the implementation of accelerated life testing in modern industry.