Geotechnical uncertainties and reliability-based assessments of dykes

This thesis utilises the random finite element method (RFEM) to provide practical guidance and tools for geotechnical engineers to account for the influence of soil spatial variability. This has involved: (a) practical insight and guidance on the choice of characteristic soil property values and scales of fluctuation; (b) a robust approach to...

Self–healing Thermal Interface Materials

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are widely used as gap–filler materials between electronic devices such as LEDs and ICs and their heat sink and aim to control the heat dissipation and to provide mechanical anchoring. As the rated power densities of electronic devices are increasing rapidly, the TIMS are exposed to higher thermal and...

On Ship Structure Risk and Total Ownership Cost Management Assisted by Prognostic Hull Structure Monitoring

Ships must perform their missions with a high degree of reliability to maximize availability through their service life. The ultimate safety of the hull structure is time-dependent with degradation caused by the operational environment. Achieving the fore mentioned reliability and mission availability requirements are complicated because ships...

Compiler Assisted Reliability Optimizations

Microprocessors are used in an expanding range of applications from small embedded system devices to supercomputers and mainframes. Moreover, embedded microprocessor based systems became essential in modern societies. Depending on the application domain, embedded systems have to satisfy different constraints. The major challenges today are cost,...

The Lifetime Prediction of LED Drivers and Lamps

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have become a very promising alternative lighting source with the main advantages of a longer lifetime and a higher efficiency than traditional ones. However, the LED lamp’s lifetime is compromised by its driver’s reliability. Although extensive studies have been made on the reliability of LEDs, the research on the...

Reliability Aware Computing Platforms Design and Lifetime Management

Aggressive CMOS technology feature size down-scaling into the deca nanometer regime, while benefiting performance and yield, determined device characteristics variability increase w.r.t. their nominal values, which can lead to large spreads in delay, power, and robustness, and make devices more prone to aging and noise induced failures during in...

Deterministic execution of multithreaded applications for reliability of multicore systems

Constant reduction in the size of transistors has made it possible to implement many cores on a single die. However, smaller transistors are more susceptible to both temporary and permanent faults. To make such systems more reliable, online fault tolerance techniques can be applied. A common approach for providing fault tolerance is to per- form...

A Systematic Approach to Address the Reliability of Solid State Lighting Drivers

Solid State Lighting (SSL) technology is a new technology based on light emitting diodes as light sources. This technology due to its several outstanding characteristics such as lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, and higher design flexibility with respect to the conventional lighting technology has become very attractive to both...

Aging Assessment and Reliability Aware Computing Platforms

Aggressive CMOS technology feature size scaling has been going on for the past decades, while the supply voltage is not proportionally scaled. Due to the increasing power density and electric field in the gate dielectric, the accelerating factors of failure mechanisms in nanoscale Integrated Circuits (ICs) have become more severe than ever. As a...

Service reliability and urban public transport design

The last few decades have shown a substantial increase in personal mobility. Urban traffic and transport volumes have been increasing for years. However, the share of public transport in this mobility growth did not change much and still remains rather limited. To ensure the accessibility and liveability of our cities for future generations,...