Cumulative Damages

Abstract

In Chapter I, we noted that, among the reasons for failures, an important place is occupied by the aging of a system. No matter how perfect the construction of a system and its elements or the technology of their production, the material of which the units are made and combinations of them will, with the passage of time, undergo irreversible changes. These changes are caused by corrosion, abrasion, accumulation of deformations, fatigue, diffusion of one material in another, etc. In a single system or even in a single unit, these processes are superimposed on each other, they interact with each other and, in the final analysis, they cause a change in the operating characteristics.