ABSTRACT
The dynamic performance of engineered systems and its evolution over time is essential for decision making. It plays an important role in defining operational activities (e.g., maintenance) and investment decisions, which, in turn, have an important impact on life-cycle analysis. Understanding and modeling deterioration processes is important to make better and cost-efficient management decisions. One of the main aspects that define the life-cycle performance of a system is the evolution (decay) in one or a set of performance indicators; this is referred to as deterioration. All systems deteriorate as a result of continuous material weakening, their use, and the interaction with the surrounding environment (external loading). This chapter presents a review of the state of the art of deterioration models and discusses the specific case of models that are based on additive processes. These processes are a step forward over traditional methods since they can be used to combine several independent deterioration processes. The chapter illustrates additive processes with a detailed example and includes a list of references for further reading.
