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Estimation for a family of life distributions with applications to fatigue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Z.W. Birnbaum
Affiliation:
University of Washington
S.C. Saunders
Affiliation:
Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories, Seattle

Summary

The estimation problem is studied for a new two-parameter family of life length distributions which has been previously derived from a model of fatigue crack growth. Maximum likelihood estimates of both parameters are obtained and iterative computing procedures are given and examined. A simple estimate of the median life is exhibited, shown to be consistent and then compared, favorably, with the maximum likelihood estimate. More important, the asymptotic distribution of this estimate is shown to be within the same class of distributions as the observations themselves. This model, and these estimation procedures, are tried by fitting this distribution to several extensive sets of fatigue data and then some comparisons of practical significance are made.

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Sheffield: Applied Probability Trust 

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References

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