• Identify potential failure mechanisms, e.g., chemical, electrical, physical, mechanical, structural, or thermal processes leading to failure.
• Expose the product to highly accelerated stresses to find the dominant root-cause of failure.
• Identify the dominant failure mechanism as the weakest link.
• Model the dominant mechanism.
• Combine the data gathered from accelerated tests and statistical distributions, e.g., Weibull distribution, Lognormal distribution.
• Develop an equation for the dominant failure mechanism at the site and its mean time-to-failure (MTTF).

The current trend in systems engineering and reliability assessment within the DoD and industry is to supplement traditional statistics-based reliability prediction models with techniques that apply more physics-based approaches to the identification and elimination of life-limiting failure modes and mechanisms through proactive Design for Reliability (DFR) and reliability growth techniques. Many Physics-of-Failure (PoF) models, covering both mechanical and electronic device failure modes and mechanisms, have been published in the open literature over the years or developed as part of membership-funded consortiums (e.g., CALCE, AVSI, VITA-51).

Virtually no effort has been made, however, to synthesize these widely scattered models into a single, readily-accessible repository that can be used to support reliability practitioners and researchers in model implementation and development. As a result, PoF Models developed over the last 30 years have not received general acceptance or wide application, despite greater recognition of their value within the DoD and industry. Development of a web-based PoF Model repository within RIAC, and making it available and interactive on the RIAC website, will provide a significant benefit to systems engineers, design engineers, reliability practitioners and the research community at large.

The objective of the WARP effort is to collect, analyze and verify the existence and characteristics of physics-of-failure (PoF) models for electronic, electromechanical and mechanical components to provide a centralized web-based repository within RIAC that is accessible to researchers and engineers for their understanding of:

1. What specific PoF Models should be used to assess the reliability of specific component types (representing both internal device and packaging-related failure mechanisms)
2. What specific PoF Models currently exist in the WARP repository to accomplish the goal in bullet 1
3. What specific PoF Models need to be developed (gap analysis) or added to the WARP repository to accomplish the goal in bullet 1
4. What specific physical Data/Information is needed to exercise each identified PoF Model in the WARP repository based on bullet 2

The WARP repository is populated based upon user submittals through the RIAC WARP website interface. While there are no restrictions to accessing the WARP website (including the ability to view the WARP Forum or perform searches), the ability to submit PoF Model information for RIAC verification or participate in the WARP Forum will be restricted to only those Members who have registered with, and been approved by, RIAC Technical Personnel.

Submitted PoF Model Info from registered and approved WARP members are screened and verified by specific RIAC Administrative personnel prior to it being made public on the RIAC WARP website.