Citation

Parkhouse JG. Reliab. Eng. 1987; 17(2): 97-109.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0143-8174(87)90009-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Four types of defect are described, and the hierarchical nature of shape, form and material is explored. Defects and failure are also shown to be hierarchical, and a structure's damage is defined as the sum of its defects. The concept of material toughness is linked to structural redundancy. Damage is described in two ways: geometrically and materially, the latter describing performance loss quantitatively. The paper concludes with a simple numerical example of how damage affects reliability.