Step-by-step accelerated testing

One important aspect of accelerated testing (AT) is the step-by-step strategy that can help obtain accurate and rapid initial information as results of product testing for reliability problems solving. The author demonstrates that successful AT uses the simulation of input influences on the product in a simultaneous combination, connection and interaction as experienced in the field. Basic to the author's methodology are the following factors: (1) developing the successive 11 steps of accelerated testing; (2) obtaining maximum correlation between field and laboratory testing results and giving statistical criteria for this goal; (3) demonstrating that the main factor in the choice of AT regimes is the limit of the physics of degradation process; (4) choosing the technology for determining the influences for introducing all the possibilities of the field; and (5) developing the methods of reliability and maintainability prediction for different types of conditions. The paper includes results obtained by utilizing this methodology and can help specialists in engineering to develop their AT programs.