Accelerated Life Tests under Pareto-IV Lifetime Distribution: Real Data Application and Simulation Study

Abstract

In this article, a progressive-stress accelerated life test (ALT) that is based on progressive type-II censoring is studied. The cumulative exposure model is used when the lifetime of test units follows Pareto-IV distribution. Different estimates as the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) and Bayes estimates (BEs) for the model parameters are discussed. Bayesian estimates are derived while using the Tierney and Kadane (TK) approximation method and the importance sampling method. The asymptotic and bootstrap confidence intervals (CIs) of the parameters are constructed. A real data set is analyzed in order to clarify the methods proposed through this paper. Two types of the progressive-stress tests, the simple ramp-stress test and multiple ramp-stress test, are compared through the simulation study. Finally, some interesting conclusions are drawn.

Keywords

• progressive-stress
• progressive type-II censoring
• maximum likelihood estimation
• bayes estimation
• Tierney and Kadane approximation
• simulation study