Confidence Interval Procedures for the Weibull Process With Applications to Reliability Growth

Abstract

The Weibull Process (a nonhomogeneous Poisson process with intensity r(t) = λβt ^β−1) is considered as a stochastic model for the Duane (1964) reliability growth postulate. Under this model the mean time between failure (MTBF) for the system at time t is given by M(t) = [r(t)]⁻¹. Small sample and asymptotic confidence intervals on M(t) are discussed for failure- and time-truncated testing. Tabled values to compute the confidence intervals and numercial examples illustrating these procedures are presented.

KEY WORDS:

• Weibull process
• Confidence intervals
• Achieved MTBF
• Failure and time truncation