Expectation-Maximization Algorithms for Obtaining Estimations of Generalized Failure Intensity Parameters

Abstract

Abstract-This paper presents several iterative methods based on Stochastic Expectation-Maximization (EM) methodology in order to estimate parametric reliability models for randomly lifetime data. The methodology is related to Maximum Likelihood Estimates (MLE) in the case of missing data. A bathtub form of failure intensity formulation of a repairable system reliability is presented where the estimation of its parameters is considered through EM algorithm . Field of failures data from industrial site are used to fit the model. Finally, the interval estimation basing on large-sample in literature is discussed and the examination of the actual coverage probabilities of these confidence intervals is presented using Monte Carlo simulation method.