Abstract: Disclosed are methods and systems that facilitate the estimation of entropy in a dissipative process of a system, via a structured approach to degradation and failure modeling that solves the analysis as a geometric problem, to measure degradation and/or expected life or failure of a system. It was found that data collected to estimate entropies produced by dissipative processes in association with degradation or ageing of batteries, grease, and fatigue, exhibit linearity between related degradation measure and combination of specific accumulated entropies (e.g., joule dissipation entropy, heat storage entropy, heat transfer entropy, electrochemical entropy, shear work entropy, thermal entropy, oxidation entropy, and plastic strain entropy, thermal entropy). A universally consistent approach is further disclosed for characterizing lead-acid batteries of all configurations.