Generalized mixtures in reliability modelling: Applications to the construction of bathtub shaped hazard models and the study of systems

In this paper, we obtain and discuss some general properties of hazard rate (HR) functions constructed via generalized mixtures of two members. These results are applied to determine the shape of generalized mixtures of an increasing hazard rate (IHR) model and an exponential model. In addition, we note that these kind of generalized mixtures can be used to construct bathtub-shaped HR models. As examples, we study in detail two cases: when the IHR model chosen is a linear HR function and when the IHR model is the extended exponential-geometric distribution. Finally, we apply the results and show the utility of generalized mixtures in determining the shape of the FIR function of different systems, such as mixed systems or consecutive k-out-of-n systems. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Soils, Ltd.