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Risk and failure analysis for improved performance and reliability
Materials Science and Engineering, 49 (1981) 193 - 194
193
Book Renew
Risk and Failure Analysis for Improved Performance and Reliability edited by J. J. Burke and V. Weiss; published by Plenum, New York, 1980; 355 pp.; price, U.S.$ 42.50
This 355-page hardback volume puts between covers 18 papers presented at the 24th Annual Sagamore Conference held at Lake George, NY, U.S.A., in August 1977. The Sagamore Conferences are a cooperative venture between the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center at Watertown, MA, U.S.A. and Syracuse University and have been held regularly since 1954, covering a very wide diversity of topics. Their prime objective is to encourage contributions and associated discussion on subjects considered to be of collective importance to the American Department of Defense, the U.S. Army and the scientific community. The two editors of the present volume are the Chairman and Program Director respectively of the Sagamore Conference Committee and they are the regular editors of the published series of conference proceedings. The 24th Conference had as its theme the title of the volume and the sessions dealt with the techniques of failure analysis, the use of risk and failure analysis for design against both fracture and fatigue failure, elevated temperature and environmental effects on performance and reliability, and a systems approach to production reliability for multicomponent products. The final session was a forward look at new needs and new techniques. Diagnostic methods reviewed include nondestructive testing, X-ray diffraction, optical holography, neutron radiography, X-ray spectroscopy and neutron activation analysis. Analytical procedures covered are fracture mechanics, damage analysis, life prediction, reliability characterization and reliability assurance. The failure modes examined include fatigue, ductile fracture and corrosion, and the service factors influencing the rate of
failure considered include wear, environment and high temperature. Risk and failure analysis is a fashionable philosophy applied to design and prototype evaluation as a means of ensuring safety and reliability of a product and avoiding failure during service. As Dolan, the author of the keynote paper, succinctly concludes his overview, "a comprehensive analysis based on minimizing the risk of all modes of failure under the forseeable circumstances in future service must be the basis for prediction of the safe and satisfactory performance of the product with a high degree of confidence". The means of carrying out such a comprehensive analysis and the methods of interpreting the data are what the book is all about. Since risk and failure analysis is a management philosophy rather than a clearly defined technology, the subjects of the various chapters have a rather catholic coverage of topics and the contents of the book consequently hang together in places with what at first sight seems only a slender thread of technical continuity. The individual chapters which are largely "broad brush" reviews of particular subject areas will naturally have limited appeal to the specialist in that particular field. However, this is obviously not the intention of the book. Rather it should help the specialist (e.g. the non-destructive testing researcher, the neutron mdiographer, the fracture mechanics specialist and the failures expert) to see his particular "neck of the woods" in the broader (and perhaps more satisfying? ) context of its relevance to product performance. It should also help design and production engineers to appreciate the potential of these specialist technologies, each of which is a jigsaw piece which when properly interlocked can provide a more complete picture of a product in relation to its service performance and operational reliability. The book itself suffers in places by the reproduction quality of some of the photo-
194
graphic and radiographic figures and by inadequate proof correction. However, it is nicely laid out, is carefully indexed and should have a useful shelf life (and I am sure, in most cases, desk-top life) of many years
in the personal and organizational libraries of those responsible for the "sharp end" of manufacturing practice. R. S. S H A R P E
Erratum
R. C. Wetherhold, A Weibull brittle failure model for biaxial loading of a notched composite material, Mater. Sci. Eng., 47 (1981) 271 - 275 Equation (8) should read as follows:
~B
=
I lr'i2
[3 h~ L
r l
+ - -2
cos(20)
(8)
Table 4, fourth column heading, should read "~ = 25".
193
Book Renew
Risk and Failure Analysis for Improved Performance and Reliability edited by J. J. Burke and V. Weiss; published by Plenum, New York, 1980; 355 pp.; price, U.S.$ 42.50
This 355-page hardback volume puts between covers 18 papers presented at the 24th Annual Sagamore Conference held at Lake George, NY, U.S.A., in August 1977. The Sagamore Conferences are a cooperative venture between the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center at Watertown, MA, U.S.A. and Syracuse University and have been held regularly since 1954, covering a very wide diversity of topics. Their prime objective is to encourage contributions and associated discussion on subjects considered to be of collective importance to the American Department of Defense, the U.S. Army and the scientific community. The two editors of the present volume are the Chairman and Program Director respectively of the Sagamore Conference Committee and they are the regular editors of the published series of conference proceedings. The 24th Conference had as its theme the title of the volume and the sessions dealt with the techniques of failure analysis, the use of risk and failure analysis for design against both fracture and fatigue failure, elevated temperature and environmental effects on performance and reliability, and a systems approach to production reliability for multicomponent products. The final session was a forward look at new needs and new techniques. Diagnostic methods reviewed include nondestructive testing, X-ray diffraction, optical holography, neutron radiography, X-ray spectroscopy and neutron activation analysis. Analytical procedures covered are fracture mechanics, damage analysis, life prediction, reliability characterization and reliability assurance. The failure modes examined include fatigue, ductile fracture and corrosion, and the service factors influencing the rate of
failure considered include wear, environment and high temperature. Risk and failure analysis is a fashionable philosophy applied to design and prototype evaluation as a means of ensuring safety and reliability of a product and avoiding failure during service. As Dolan, the author of the keynote paper, succinctly concludes his overview, "a comprehensive analysis based on minimizing the risk of all modes of failure under the forseeable circumstances in future service must be the basis for prediction of the safe and satisfactory performance of the product with a high degree of confidence". The means of carrying out such a comprehensive analysis and the methods of interpreting the data are what the book is all about. Since risk and failure analysis is a management philosophy rather than a clearly defined technology, the subjects of the various chapters have a rather catholic coverage of topics and the contents of the book consequently hang together in places with what at first sight seems only a slender thread of technical continuity. The individual chapters which are largely "broad brush" reviews of particular subject areas will naturally have limited appeal to the specialist in that particular field. However, this is obviously not the intention of the book. Rather it should help the specialist (e.g. the non-destructive testing researcher, the neutron mdiographer, the fracture mechanics specialist and the failures expert) to see his particular "neck of the woods" in the broader (and perhaps more satisfying? ) context of its relevance to product performance. It should also help design and production engineers to appreciate the potential of these specialist technologies, each of which is a jigsaw piece which when properly interlocked can provide a more complete picture of a product in relation to its service performance and operational reliability. The book itself suffers in places by the reproduction quality of some of the photo-
194
graphic and radiographic figures and by inadequate proof correction. However, it is nicely laid out, is carefully indexed and should have a useful shelf life (and I am sure, in most cases, desk-top life) of many years
in the personal and organizational libraries of those responsible for the "sharp end" of manufacturing practice. R. S. S H A R P E
Erratum
R. C. Wetherhold, A Weibull brittle failure model for biaxial loading of a notched composite material, Mater. Sci. Eng., 47 (1981) 271 - 275 Equation (8) should read as follows:
~B
=
I lr'i2
[3 h~ L
r l
+ - -2
cos(20)
(8)
Table 4, fourth column heading, should read "~ = 25".