Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Point And Interval Estimation Of Series System Reliability Using Small Data Sets, Craig J. Willits

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation explored the relative performance of several small-sample point and interval estimators for series system reliability. Among point estimators, the maximum likelihood estimator MLE was compared to the corresponding Bayes estimator. In addition, four interval estimators were compared Easterlings modified maximum likelihood integer estimator, the Lindstrom-Madden estimator, and Bayesian probability interval estimators constructed using approximate beta and Bayes Monte Carlo empirical posterior densities. The relative performance of the point estimators was assessed by comparing their mean square errors. For the four interval estimators, the interval coverage probability and the average interval lower bound were examined. The values of these …