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BATHTUB FUNCTIONS AND BURN-IN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

Henry W. Block ,
Yi-Kuan Jong  and
Thomas H. Savits
Henry W. Block
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Yi-Kuan Jong
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48858
Thomas H. Savits
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
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Abstract

Components which have bathtub shapes are reasonable candidates for burn-in in the sense that if these components are exposed to standard or elevated operating conditions for a short period of time, they tend to improve. In this paper we study the principle which states that burn-in should occur at or before the point at which a bathtub-shaped failure function starts increasing. To this end we develop three sign change results which characterize bathtub-shaped failure rates. These results are used to show that if a failure rate function is bathtub-shaped, then various other related functions have bathtub or upside-down bathtub shape. Finally, we give a framework for determining when the above principle holds.

Type
Research Article
Information
Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 497 - 507
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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