Abstract
Many technological systems are subjected, during their lifetime, to a continuous degradation process often referred in literature to as cumulative damage. Much statistical literature has addressed this problem by different points of view. Among them, a more engineering one has been introduced about the seventies by Gertsbakh and Kordonskiy. The present paper suggests a practical extension of the Gertsbakh-Kordonskiy formulation for the analysis of cumulative damage in presence of a not negligible experimental error. An application of the model is also presented regarding the study of the effects of cumulative damage on a certain typology of catalytic converter for automotive use. Here the model allows to formulate reliability evaluations that can be very useful especially in early development phases.