Reliability evaluation for high reliability products based on evidence theory

Abstract

The reliability analysis and evaluation for high reliability products is difficult in engineering because of its high cost and longer lifetime. In order to get accurate estimation of reliability indexes, the reliability information which issued from different sources should be utilized in the process of reliability evaluation when the reliability test data is scarce. The information fusion technique is an effective way to handle the multi-source information in the process of reliability assessment. It can take full advantage of the multi-source reliability information which be acquired at different time or from different place and get more precise estimation of the product's reliability. The main task of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of high reliability products using evidence theory by fusion of different types of reliability information issued from different sources, such as simulation test data, component test data, expert information and history test information. A reliability information fusion model is put forward. An example of an electronic device is provided to show how to utilize different type of information in the process of reliability evaluation.