Track 3 Session 4

2:20 to 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Challenges and Methods for Practical ALT

The U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development & Engineering Center (ARDEC) provides more than 90% of the lethality for the Army. Thus, it is the critical center of excellence for weapons and ammunition for the Army and also for the Department of Defense, as they also provide the engineering support for many joint service and NATO programs. To that end, they have advanced the application of accelerated life testing to efficiently identify life-limiting components and their failure modes and to predict life in the varied environments of storage and service. This presentation will outline the advances and applications of methodologies and infrastructure for service life determination and predictive stockpile management through application of quantitative accelerated life testing methods and degradation analyses. Additionally, it will depict an approach based on condition indicator exploitation to provide in-situ condition based monitoring (CBM).

Key Words: Accelerated Life Testing (ALT or QALT), Degradation Analysis, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)

Jason L. Cook

US Army ARDEC

Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey