Reliability of Non-destructive Testing in the Railway Field: Common Practice and New Trends

Non-Destructive Testing is a statistical process whose reliability definition requires suitable and dedicated mathematical approaches. Such approaches had origin in the aerospace field in the late ‘60s of the last century, but their application to other mechanical fields demands proper adjustments. The first application of reliability analysis of Non-Destructive Testing to the railways field dates back to 2001, but since then the traditional techniques have been improved and new ones introduced. This manuscript presents the common approaches, the new methodologies and the still open points for the reliability analysis of Non-Destructive Testing of both rolling stock materials (axles) and infrastructures (rails).