A Continuous Ramp Methodology for Vibration in Highly Accelerated Life Testing

In Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) experimentation, the accepted method for increasing vibration levels in testing is to use step intervals. This approach is based on heuristics in the absence of any exploration into alternative testing methods. A proposed method of increasing vibration levels through a continuous ramp was explored, the goal being to reduce the time and costs associated with HALT. The new method offers potential benefits including reduced operator setup and test times in the conduction of the experiments, as well as increased simplicity. The proposed recommendation for further study is to conduct the continuous ramp method on a wide variety of materials, so that this method may be established as an acceptable alternative to the step stress method.