Parameter estimation for the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution under an accelerated degradation test

This study provides a model to estimate the parameters of the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution under an accelerated degradation test; this test evaluates the lifetime of a durable product. The difference between the proposed model and the existing models is that the proposed model considers the influence of the product materials and the random environmental effects, which would be viewed as a Wiener process addressed by the stochastic differential equation. The proposed model and the method of estimating parameters are illustrated using an ADT case, and the model performance is compared to that of Owen and Padgett (1999). [Received 9 September 2010; Revised 6 March 2011; Accepted 25 April 2011]