• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2008

This paper proposes a method of estimating the lifetime distribution at use condition for constant stress accelerated life tests when an infant-mortality failure mode as well as wear-out one exists. General limited failure population model is introduced to describe these failure modes. It is assumed that the log lifetime of each failure mode follows a location-scale distribution and a linear relation exists between the location parameter and the stress. An estimation procedure using the expectation and maximization algorithm is proposed. Specific formulas for Weibull distribution are obtained. An illustrative example and the simulation results are given.