Abstract: An apparatus for testing failure of a material used in a jet engine, and more particularly to an apparatus that uses one or more miniature jet engine components made from a material used in a full-size jet engine and desired to be tested. The apparatus permits easy removal and disassembly of a jet engine mounted thereon as well as real-time measurements of run-time parameters. The methods and apparatus provide for predicting and analyzing failure by a number of fatigue-related mechanisms including creep, fatigue, crack growth, foreign object damage, fretting, erosion, and stress corrosion. The apparatus also permits testing of a component placed in the exhaust gases of a jet engine mounted therein.

Abstract: The invention regards a system reliability or failure predicting apparatus and method that incorporates known information about system component failure into a system model and uses the model with or without other acquired system data to predict the probability of system failure. An embodiment of the method includes using probabilistic methods to create a system failure model from the failure models of individual system components, predicting the failure of the system based on the component models and system data, ranking the sensitivity of the system to the system variables, and communicating a failure prediction.

Abstract: The invention regards a system reliability or failure predicting apparatus and method that incorporates known information about system component failure into a system model and uses the model with or without other acquired system data to predict the probability of system failure. An embodiment of the method includes using probabilistic methods to create a system failure model from the failure models of individual system components, predicting the failure of the system based on the component models and system data, ranking the sensitivity of the system to the system variables, and communicating a failure prediction.