Reliability has long been one of the criteria which engineers have used when choosing between alternative designs of components or systems# However, reliability was primarily understood in a qualitative way- High reliability was achieved by a process of careful design, testing to failure, and redesigning to incorporate the lessons of the tests. When the product was in use, the details of in service failures would be fed back, to the designer. This process has been well applied in the aero engine field. When the test to failure approach could not be used because of the risk to human life associated with failure, products were usually overdesigned so that failure was manifestly unlikely. In the design of large dams the product was so expensive that a more quantitative approach had to be used The earliest application of probability and statistics to engineering occurred here. Methods were developed for estimating the return period or probability of large floods 'Which would overtop the structure (Fuller, 1914)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:509203 |
| Date | January 1967 |
| Creators | Buzacott, J. A. |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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