Abstract
In this paper, materials aging and structural reliability are considered in the context of life-cycle engineering and management of engineered systems. The quality of assessments of structural reliability depends largely upon the accuracy in estimating the evolution and distribution of damage that result from materials aging (e.g., corrosion and cracking). For these estimates, a more robust predictive approach must be adopted to rely upon science based modeling that captures the influences of both external (e.g., loading) and internal (e.g., microstructural) variables. The approach is contrasted against the more traditional parametrically based statistical approaches that are in use. The proposed approach and its efficacy are illustrated through examples on corrosion and corrosion fatigue of airframe aluminum alloys, the linkage between crack growth and S-N response in fatigue and oxygen enhanced crack growth in nickel-based superalloys.
