Analyses for Durability and System Design Lifetime
A Multidisciplinary Approach

This book explores system design life cycle problems for complex engineering systems and satellites.

Joseph H. Saleh (Author)

9780521867894, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 December 2007

216 pages
26 x 18.2 x 2 cm, 0.688 kg

Review of the hardback: 'This book provides an excellent insight into approaches that can be used to understand better the key drivers in the marginal cost of durability. … I would recommend [it] as an informative, useful, and practical addition to the engineer's library and look forward to the works on uncertainty and flexibility to follow.' Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

An issue in engineering design is a system's design lifetime. Economists study durability choice problems for consumer goods but seldom address lifetime problem(s) of complex engineering systems. The issues for engineering systems are complex and multidisciplinary and require an understanding of the 'technicalities of durability' and the economic implications of the marginal cost of durability and value maximization. Commonly the design lifetime for an infrastructure is set between 30 and 70 years. Satellite lifetimes are also assigned arbitrarily or with limited analysis. This book provides a systemic qualitative and quantitative approach to these problems addressing, first, the technicality of durability, second, the marginal cost of durability, and third, the durability choice problem for complex engineering systems with network externalities (competition and market uncertainty) and obsolescence effects (technology evolution). Since the analyses are system-specific, a satellite example is used to illustrate the essence and provide a quantitative application of said analyses.

1. Introduction: on time
2. To reduce or to extend a system design lifetime?
3. A brief history of the economic thought on durability
4. Analysis of marginal cost of durability and system cost per day
5. Flawed metrics: system cost per day and cost per payload
6. Durability choice and optimal design lifetime for complex engineering systems
Epilogue
Appendix A
Appendix B.

Subject Areas: Aerospace & aviation technology [TRP], Technology, engineering, agriculture [T]