Real-time reliability evaluation of equipment based on separated-phase Gamma process

This paper presents a model to evaluate the real-time reliability of equipment whose degradation process is obviously separated into different phases. Equipment´s degradation process is usually modeled by stochastic process, since it can depict the real degradation process of equipment effectively. However, a hypothesis which states that the degradation process follows a single stochastic process is often proposed. When the degradation process is obviously separated into different phases, the hypothesis is no longer true. With respect to the separated-phase and monotonic degradation process, a separated-phase Gamma process is proposed. The real-time reliability function based on this degradation model is then obtained and is updated by Bayes method. Finally, the model has been applied to Liquid Coupling Device (LCD) and shows that it can depict the real degradation process of LCD effectively.