Paradigm Shift in the Holistic Evaluation of the Reliability of NDE Systems

Abstract The aim of this publication is to provide an overview of new methodologies for evaluating the reliability of NDE systems in accordance with the specific requirements of industrial applications. After a review of the substantive issues of the previous decades, the go forward guidance is concluded. For high safety demands a quantitative POD (Probability of Detection) created from hit/miss experiments or signal response analysis and ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) are typically created. The modular reliability model distinguishes between the pure physical-technical influence, industrial application factors, and human factors. It helps to learn which factors can be determined by modeling and by open or blind trials. A new paradigm is offered to consider the POD or reliability of the system as a function of the configuration of input variables and is used for optimization rather than for a final judgement. New approaches are considered dealing with real defects in a realistic environment, affordable but precisely like the Bayesian approach or model assisted methods. Among the influencing parameters, human factors are of high importance. A systematic psychological approach helps to find out where the bottlenecks are and shows possibilities for improvement.