Virtual age, is it real? - Discussing virtual age in reliability context

Several settings, where the notion of virtual age is employed, are discussed. We argue that the age reduction imperfect repair modeling is often not sufficiently justified in practice, as it is not possible to execute repair in most of real situations that conforms with this model. On the other hand, a shock-based virtual age model is suggested and justified via the probabilities of failures on shocks. The new notion of virtual age for degrading items is also introduced. We discuss how to recalculate virtual age after switching from one regime to another. Several examples illustrating different notions of virtual age are presented.

Automated summary

The discussion covers various scenarios where the concept of virtual age is applied, presenting a shock-based virtual age model and a new concept for degrading items. The recalibration of virtual age after transitioning between different regimes is also explored, with examples illustrating different notions of virtual age.