PRACTICAL ISSUES RELATING TO STATISTICAL FAILURE ANALYSIS OF AERO GAS-TURBINES

Statistical failure analysis of aero gas turbines presents many specia l problems. Various difficulties must be overcome, including the pauci ty and form of available data with its heavily censored nature, select ing the right analysis method, the validity of the underlying modellin g assumptions and the correct interpretation of the results. This pape r outlines the formal Rolls-Royce approach to quantifying numerical ri sk for safety and reliability, and the pivotal role played by the Weib ull distribution. It reviews the generic forms of the censored failure data obtained from test and service environments. The limitations of the current analysis techniques are reviewed.