A Virtual Prognostic Tool for Nuclear Power Electronics Reliability

This research highlights new developments in a high fidelity virtual environment that allows prediction of total life time, overall reliability and maintainability for circuit cards and their components, through a new simulation methodology. This work demonstrates the application of statistical models to circuit cards, and the ability to predict system and sub-system performance based on component data. Quantitative accelerated life tests are designed to quantify the life of circuit cards under different thermal stresses. This research allows the user to identify the components that contribute the most to downtime and to determine the effect of design alternatives on system performance in a cost-effective manner. Most significantly, this work has proven the feasibility of a novel platform for physics-based reliability analysis.