Accelerated Life Test Planning With Independent Weibull Competing Risks With Known Shape Parameter

This article presents methodology for accelerated life test (ALT) planning when there are two or more failure modes, or competing risks which are dependent on one accelerating factor. It is assumed that the failure modes have respective latent (unobservable) failure times, and the minimum of these times corresponds to the product lifetime. The latent failure times are assumed to be s-independently distributed Weibull with known, common shape parameter. Expressions for the Fisher information matrix, and test plan criteria are presented. The methodology is applied to the ALT of Class-H insulation for motorettes, where temperature is the accelerating factor. Two-level, and 4:2:1 allocation test plans based on determinants, and on estimating quantiles or hazard functions, are presented. Sensitivity of optimal test plans to the specified Weibull shape parameter is also studied