Analyses for Durability and System Design Lifetime

Dr Joseph H. Saleh is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his PhD from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and served as the Executive Director of the Ford-MIT Alliance. His research focuses on issues of design lifetime, and how to embed flexibility in the design of complex engineering systems in general, and aerospace systems in particular. Dr Saleh is the author or co-author of fifty technical publications, and the recipient of numerous awards for his teaching and research contributions. He served as a technical consultant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I.B.M., and has collaborated on numerous research projects with American and European aerospace companies.

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

• 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.