Acceptance Sampling Plans from Truncated Life Tests Based on the Birnbaum–Saunders Distribution for Percentiles

Time to failure due to fatigue is one of the common quality characteristics in material engineering applications. In this article, acceptance sampling plans are developed for the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution percentiles when the life test is truncated at a pre-specified time. The minimum sample size necessary to ensure the specified life percentile is obtained under a given customer's risk. The operating characteristic values (and curves) of the sampling plans as well as the producer's risk are presented. The R package named spbsq is developed to implement the developed sampling plans. Two examples with real data sets are also given as illustration.     

Estimation of the Parameters of the Birnbaum–Saunders Distribution

Some alternative estimators to the maximum likelihood estimators of the two parameters of the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution are proposed. Most have high efficiencies as measured by root mean square error and are robust to departure from the model as well as to outliers. In addition, the proposed estimators are easy to compute. Both complete and right-censored data are discussed. Simulation studies are provided to compare the performance of the estimators.     

The Generalized Birnbaum–Saunders Distribution and Its Theory,Methodology, and Application

In this paper, we discuss the class of generalized Birnbaum–Saunders distributions, which is a very flexible family suitable for modeling lifetime data as it allows for different degrees of kurtosis and asymmetry and unimodality as well as bimodality. We describe the theoretical developments on this model including properties, transformations and related distributions, lifetime analysis, and shape analysis. We also discuss methods of inference based on uncensored and censored data, diagnostics methods, goodness-of-fit tests, and random number generation algorithms for the generalized Birnbaum–Saunders model. Finally, we present some illustrative examples and show that this distribution fits the data better than the classical Birnbaum–Saunders model.     

Small-Sample Corrections for Score Tests in Birnbaum–Saunders Regressions

In this article, we deal with the issue of performing accurate small-sample inference in the Birnbaum–Saunders regression model, which can be useful for modeling lifetime or reliability data. We derive a Bartlett-type correction for the score test and numerically compare the corrected test with the usual score test and some other competitors.     

Inference and Optimal Design Based on Step—Partially Accelerated Life Tests for the Generalized Pareto Distribution under Progressive Type-I Censoring

Various types of failure, censored and accelerated life tests, are commonly employed for life testing in some manufacturing industries and products that are highly reliable. In this article, we consider the tampered failure rate model as one of such types that relate the distribution under use condition to the distribution under accelerated condition. It is assumed that the lifetimes of products under use condition have generalized Pareto distribution as a lifetime model. Some estimation methods such as graphical, moments, probability weighted moments, and maximum likelihood estimation methods for the parameters are discussed based on progressively type-I censored data. The determination of optimal stress change time is discussed under two different criteria of optimality. Finally, a Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to examine the performance of the estimation methods and the optimality criteria.     

Estimation for Birnbaum–Saunders Distribution in Simple Step Stress–accelerated Life Test with Type-II Censoring

This paper develops the Bayesian estimation for the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution based on Type-II censoring in the simple step stress–accelerated life test with power law accelerated form. Maximum likelihood estimates are obtained and Gibbs sampling procedure is used to get the Bayesian estimates for shape parameter of Birnbaum–Saunders distribution and parameters of power law–accelerated model. Asymptotic normality method and Markov Chain Monte Carlo method are employed to construct the corresponding confidence interval and highest posterior density interval at different confidence level, respectively. At last, the results are compared by using Monte Carlo simulations, and a numerical example is analyzed for illustration.     

Truncated Midzuno–Sen Sampling Schemes for Estimating Distribution Functions

We consider a truncated Midzuno–Sen sampling scheme. The proposed method can be used to estimate the distribution function of a study variable assuming that the distribution function of an auxiliary variable is known. The ratio estimator for estimating the distribution function is shown to remain unbiased. We introduce the first- and second-order inclusion probabilities under the truncated Midzuno–Sen sampling scheme. Numerical examples are provided to support our theoretical results.     

A Comparison of Two Random Number Generators for the Birnbaum–Saunders Distribution

Abstract

The Birnbaum–Saunders distribution was developed to describe fatigue failure lifetimes, however, the distribution has been shown to be applicable for a variety of situations that frequently occur in the engineering sciences. In general, the distribution can be used for situations that involve stochastic wear–out failure. The distribution does not have an exponential family structure, and it is often necessary to use simulation methods to study the properties of statistical inference procedures for this distribution. Two random number generators for the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution have appeared in the literature. The purpose of this article is to present and compare these two random number generators to determine which is more efficient. It is shown that one of these generators is a special case of the other and is simpler and more efficient to use.     

Corrections on “Exact Bayesian Variable Sampling Plans for the Exponential Distribution Based on Type-I and Type-II Hybrid Censored Samples”

Some corrections are made for the article mentioned above. These errors occured due to the floating errors in the computation of the Bayes risk which involves terms of large magnitude and opposite sign as sample size increases, that resulted in loss of accuracy in fixed precision computational tool such as Fortran language. For accurate numerical calculation, we now use the symbolic math package, Maple, to implement the calculation which can supply numerical answers accurate to any required degree of precision. Based on the new tables, some comments made earlier in Sec. 4 have been changed suitably.     

An alpha-power extension for the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

Data on fatigue to exceed a critical value (or to grow to a critical level at which failure is likely to occur) is typically adjusted using the Birnbaum–Saunders (BS) distribution [see Birnbaum ZW, Saunders SC. A new family of life distributions. J Appl Probab. 1969a;6:319–327]. Although this type of distribution is asymmetric, in some cases the degree of skewness and/or kurtosis are outside the distributional range allowed by the BS distribution. Thus, a more adequate distribution model for better adjusting such unexpected deviations is called for. With this in mind, the main object of this paper is to propose an extension of the BS distribution based on the asymmetric alpha-power family of distributions [see Pewsey A, Gómez HW, Bolfarine H. Likelihood-based inference for power distributions. Test. 2012;21(4):775–789]. This extension is called the exponentiated BS distribution. We expect that by replacing the normal distribution by such more general family, a more flexible BS family is obtained. Asymmetry in the alpha-power family is controlled by a shape parameter, which also presents a similar performance in the extended BS family. The paper presents the density function for the extended BS and derives closed-form expressions for moments. Estimation is dealt with by using maximum likelihood estimators. Large sample inference can be conducted by using the Fisher information matrix derived in the paper. Estimation performance is studied by using a small scale simulation study. Results of a real application illustrates the good performance of the proposed approach.     

Random number generators for the generalized Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

The generalized Birnbaum–Saunders distribution pertains to a class of lifetime models including both lighter and heavier tailed distributions. This model adapts well to lifetime data, even when outliers exist, and has other good theoretical properties and application perspectives. However, statistical inference tools may not exist in closed form for this model. Hence, simulation and numerical studies are needed, which require a random number generator. Three different ways to generate observations from this model are considered here. These generators are compared by utilizing a goodness-of-fit procedure as well as their effectiveness in predicting the true parameter values by using Monte Carlo simulations. This goodness-of-fit procedure may also be used as an estimation method. The quality of this estimation method is studied here. Finally, through a real data set, the generalized and classical Birnbaum–Saunders models are compared by using this estimation method.     

Bayesian inference for the Birnbaum–Saunders nonlinear regression model

We develop a Bayesian analysis for the class of Birnbaum–Saunders nonlinear regression models introduced by Lemonte and Cordeiro (Comput Stat Data Anal 53:4441–4452, 2009). This regression model, which is based on the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution (Birnbaum and Saunders in J Appl Probab 6:319–327, 1969a), has been used successfully to model fatigue failure times. We have considered a Bayesian analysis under a normal-gamma prior. Due to the complexity of the model, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are used to develop a Bayesian procedure for the considered model. We describe tools for model determination, which include the conditional predictive ordinate, the logarithm of the pseudo-marginal likelihood and the pseudo-Bayes factor. Additionally, case deletion influence diagnostics is developed for the joint posterior distribution based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence. Two empirical applications are considered in order to illustrate the developed procedures.     

Robust multivariate control charts based on Birnbaum–Saunders distributions

Multivariate control charts are powerful and simple visual tools for monitoring the quality of a process. This multivariate monitoring is carried out by considering simultaneously several correlated quality characteristics and by determining whether these characteristics are in control or out of control. In this paper, we propose a robust methodology using multivariate quality control charts for subgroups based on generalized Birnbaum–Saunders distributions and an adapted Hotelling statistic. This methodology is constructed for Phases I and II of control charts. We estimate the corresponding parameters with the maximum likelihood method and use parametric bootstrapping to obtain the distribution of the adapted Hotelling statistic. In addition, we consider the Mahalanobis distance to detect multivariate outliers and use it to assess the adequacy of the distributional assumption. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to evaluate the proposed methodology and to compare it with a standard methodology. This study reports the good performance of our methodology. An illustration with real-world air quality data of Santiago, Chile, is provided. This illustration shows that the methodology is useful for alerting early episodes of extreme air pollution, thus preventing adverse effects on human health.     

Robust explicit estimation of the two-parameter Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

The two-parameter Birnbaum–Saunders distribution is widely applicable to model failure times of fatiguing materials. Its maximum-likelihood estimators (MLEs) are very sensitive to outliers and also have no closed-form expressions. This motivates us to develop some alternative estimators. In this paper, we develop two robust estimators, which are also explicit functions of sample observations and are thus easy to compute. We derive their breakdown points and carry out extensive Monte Carlo simulation experiments to compare the performance of all the estimators under consideration. It has been observed from the simulation results that the proposed estimators outperform in a manner that is approximately comparable with the MLEs, whereas they are far superior in the presence of data contamination that often occurs in practical situations. A simple bias-reduction technique is presented to reduce the bias of the recommended estimators. Finally, the practical application of the developed procedures is illustrated with a real-data example.     

Multivariate normal mean–variance mixture distribution based on Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

A multivariate normal mean–variance mixture based on a Birnbaum–Saunders (NMVMBS) distribution is introduced and several properties of this new distribution are discussed. A new robust non-Gaussian ARCH-type model is proposed in which there exists a relation between the variance of the observations, and the marginal distributions are NMVMBS. A simple EM-based maximum likelihood estimation procedure to estimate the parameters of this normal mean–variance mixture distribution is given. A simulation study and some real data are used to demonstrate the modelling strength of this new model.     

Inference for the Birnbaum–Saunders Lifetime Regression Model with Applications

The Birnbaum–Saunders distribution is a positively skewed distribution that is frequently used for analyzing lifetime data. Regression analysis is widely used in this context when some covariates are involved in the life-test. In this article, we discuss the maximum likelihood estimation of the model parameters and associated inference. We discuss the likelihood-ratio tests for some hypotheses of interest as well as some interval estimation methods. A Monte Carlo simulation study is then carried out to examine the performance of the proposed estimators and the interval estimation methods. Finally, some numerical data analyses are done for illustrating all the inferential methods developed here.     

Inference for the common mean of several Birnbaum–Saunders populations

The Birnbaum–Saunders distribution is a widely used distribution in reliability applications to model failure times. For several samples from possible different Birnbaum–Saunders distributions, if their means can be considered as the same, it is of importance to make inference for the common mean. This paper presents procedures for interval estimation and hypothesis testing for the common mean of several Birnbaum–Saunders populations. The proposed approaches are hybrids between the generalized inference method and the large sample theory. Some simulation results are conducted to present the performance of the proposed approaches. The simulation results indicate that our proposed approaches perform well. Finally, the proposed approaches are applied to analyze a real example on the fatigue life of 6061-T6 aluminum coupons for illustration.     

New acceptance sampling plans based on life tests for Birnbaum–Saunders distributions

In this paper, we consider the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution as a life model to develop various acceptance sampling schemes based on the truncated life tests. We develop the double sampling plan and determine the design parameters satisfying both the producer's and consumer's risks simultaneously for the specified reliability levels in terms of the mean ratio to the specified life. We also propose a group sampling plan and determine the parameters by the above-mentioned two-point method. Tables are constructed for the proposed sampling plans and results are explained with examples.     

An improved method of estimation for the parameters of the Birnbaum–Saunders distribution

The Birnbaum–Saunders (BS) distribution is a positively skewed distribution, frequently used for analysing lifetime data. In this paper, we propose a simple method of estimation for the parameters of the two-parameter BS distribution by making use of some key properties of the distribution. Compared with the maximum likelihood estimators and the modified moment estimators, the proposed method has smaller bias, but having the same mean square errors as these two estimators. We also discuss some methods of construction of confidence intervals. The performance of the estimators is then assessed by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, an example is used to illustrate the method of estimation developed here.