A new approach for parameter estimation of finite Weibull mixture distributions for reliability modeling

The aim of this paper is to model lifetime data for systems that have failure modes by using the finite mixture of Weibull distributions. It involves estimating of the unknown parameters which is an important task in statistics, especially in life testing and reliability analysis. The proposed approach depends on different methods that will be used to develop the estimates such as MLE through the EM algorithm. In addition, Bayesian estimations will be investigated and some other extensions such as Graphic, Non-Linear Median Rank Regression and Monte Carlo simulation methods can be used to model the system under consideration. A numerical application will be used through the proposed approach. This paper also presents a comparison of the fitted probability density functions, reliability functions and hazard functions of the 3-parameter Weibull and Weibull mixture distributions using the proposed approach and other conventional methods which characterize the distribution of failure times for the system components. GOF is used to determine the best distribution for modeling lifetime data, the priority will be for the proposed approach which has more accurate parameter estimates. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.