During the second European-American Workshop on NDE Reliability, September 99 in Boulder, the term NDE reliability was defined as the degree that an NDT system is capable of achieving its purpose regarding detection, characterization and false calls. The most common but also most expensive - way to determine this degree of capability in e.g. defect detection is to make just a performance demonstration using realistic test samples and to count the correct detections and false calls. For a more efficient way of reliability evaluation we propose to decompose the system into main modules e.g. according to the reliability formula set up on the first workshop: into f(IC) a function of IC the intrinsic capability, determined by the physics and the technique of the NDE method representing an ideal upper bound of the reliability and g(AP) a function of AP the industrial application factor like surface state or limited access to a component in general diminishing the ideal capability and finally h(HF) the function of the human factor which is in general also diminishing the ideal capability. The workshop proposed a rather plain mathematical shape for the formula R = f(IC) g(AP) h(HF) which should be considered merely as a philosophical expression but not as exact mathematical formula to be applied for evaluation of e.g. POD data. We propose to decompose the NDE system into modules in terms of functions of IC, AP and HF if appropriate or additional ones if necessary and then to analyze the mutual relationships of the terms via fault tree analysis. Finally the total reliability of the system is composed of the reliability of the subsystems via the rules of statistical systems theory.
First trials for this approach of data analysis will be presented via examples from NDE systems in the aerospace industry.
The detection of defects in aircraft components or parts of a power plant or mines in the ground is connected with the task to distinguish between signals caused be the item searched for and noisy signals from other sources. The reliability of the system is the better the better the system is in detecting the wanted signal and avoiding false alarms caused by noise. It is usual to measure the reliability of diagnostic systems in terms of ROC-curves (Re-ceiver Operating Characteristics) and POD-curves (Probability of Detec-tion). The ROC curves describe the POD versus Probability of False Alarm with growing system sensitivity along the curve. POD curves describe the Probability of Detection for a fixed sensitivity for a variation of item sizes or depths. Reliability of the whole system is always a composition of the physics
and technique, application influences and the human factors. For the scien-tific understanding and possibilities of improvement, decomposition accord-ing to a modular model is helpful. The authors present their experiences with the reliability evaluation of metal detectors for humanitarian demining and an NDT system of mechanized ultrasonic phased array testing of copper welds. The special concern in demining is the influence of soil types, detec-tors and the experiences of human beings.