Sure; that's called accelerated life testing. You can get a pretty good argument going over how it actually correlates to real time expectations, but it's better than nothing. The first problem you run into is figuring out what to change, and how much, and that's when the first argument starts.
Probably the fastest way to verify or refute the manufacturer's assertions is to engage an expert to reverse engineer and analyze the power supply and estimate its service life based on known data about each component and the way they interact with each other.
... which does not mean that it's actually a fast process.
The military uses it, because their stuff has to work.
The automotive industry uses it, because their stuff has to work, too.
( ... and the demonstrated improvement has driven down the fleet replacement rate so far as to produce a global capacity glut, but that's another discussion. )
For more, search on:
{"power supply" "reliability prediction"}
with the quotes, without the braces.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
