5. Feedback available

In the field of structural reliability, as in all areas of operational safety, feedback is essential:

• it highlights ageing mechanisms and their relevance ;

• it lists the maintenance-inspection operations carried out to postpone or reverse ageing;

• it supports the OMF method applied to structures.

However, in most industries, feedback on structures is rarely collected, and wrongly so.

The most important basic data to be collected are :

• date of failure or deterioration ;

• operating time ;

• the location of the event ;

• effect ;

• aging mode,...