Comparison of methods to estimate the time-to-failure distribution in degradation tests

Degradation tests are alternative approaches to lifetime tests and accelerated lifetime tests in reliability studies. Based on a degradation process of a product quality characteristic over time, degradation tests provide enough information to estimate the time-to-failure distribution. Some estimation methods, such as analytical, the numerical or the approximated, can be used to obtain the time-to-failure distribution. They are chosen according to the complexity of the degradation model used in the data analysis. An example of the application and analysis of degradation tests is presented in this paper to characterize the durability of a product and compare the various estimation methods of the time-to-failure distribution. The example refers to a degradation process related to an automobile's tyre, and was carried out to estimate its average distance covered and some percentiles of interest. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.