A Cuscore Statistic for Monitoring Degradation Paths  
Author Michelle Mancenido

 

Co-Author(s) Rong Pan

 

Abstract The main objective of modeling the degradation path of a device is to predict its eventual time-to-failure. When a system is operated on-field, abrupt and unexpected changes in ambient conditions could potentially cause deviations from the expected degradation path, such as an acceleration to a state of failure. Previous estimates of lifetime distributions become inaccurate because the fitted model may no longer be a satisfactory representation of the degradation path. This paper shows the application of a Cuscore statistic to detect a downward shift in the gradient of a deterministic trend buried in autocorrelated noise. The proposed diagnostic methodology finds an application in monitoring the natural degradation of solar photovoltaic modules installed on-field.

 

Keywords degradation, statistical process control
   
    Article #:  1861
 
Proceedings of the 18th ISSAT International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Design
July 26-28, 2012 - Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.