Accelerated life test sampling plans for the Weibull distribution under Type I progressive interval censoring with random removals

Abstract

This paper considers the design of accelerated life test (ALT) sampling plans under Type I progressive interval censoring with random removals. We assume that the lifetime of products follows a Weibull distribution. Two levels of constant stress higher than the use condition are used. The sample size and the acceptability constant that satisfy given levels of producer's risk and consumer's risk are found. In particular, the optimal stress level and the allocation proportion are obtained by minimizing the generalized asymptotic variance of the maximum likelihood estimators of the model parameters. Furthermore, for validation purposes, a Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to assess the true probability of acceptance for the derived sampling plans.

Keywords:

• accelerated life tests
• generalized asymptotic variance
• maximum likelihood estimation
• sampling plan
• Type I progressive interval censoring

AMS Subject Classification :

• 62N01
• 62N03
• 62N05

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the referees for their careful reviews and insightful suggestions, which greatly improved the presentation of the article. The project is partially sponsored by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, P.R. China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China 10761011.