Inference on the high-reliability lifetime estimation based on the three-parameter Weibull distribution

Abstract

The high-reliability lifetime estimation of the lifting lug is of significant importance, as it is the most crucial component of the aerial bomb. This paper focuses on the high-reliability lifetime of the three-parameter Weibull distribution for lifting lug fatigue data. A novel method is developed to generate estimates of reliability lifetime according to the generalized fiducial inference, whose prior is calculated by the failure data. A posterior distribution is obtained based on Bayesian theory to compute the point estimate and the confidence interval of the generalized fiducial inference for reliability lifetime using the Monte Carlo Markov chain method. Subsequently, it is compared with the non-informative prior Bayesian inference. A Monte Carlo simulation demonstrates that the proposed method outperforms the non-informative prior Bayesian inference. The lower confidence limit of the generalized fiducial inference for the reliability lifetime exhibis satisfactory coverage probabilities. Finally, fatigue tests are performed on 18 lifting lugs under variable loads. The point estimate and the lower confidence limit of the high-reliability lifetime are estimated, which can illustrate the applicability of the proposed method.