Parameter Estimation of Mixed Weibull Distributions Using Cuckoo Search

The lifetime data of products with multiple failure modes which are collected from life testing are often fitted by the mixed Weibull distributions. Since the mixed Weibull distributions contain no less than five parameters,the parameter estimation is difficult and inaccurate. In order to enhance the accuracy,a new method of parameter estimation based on Cuckoo search( CS) is proposed. An optimization model for the mixed Weibull distribution is formulated by minimizing the residual sum of squares. The optimal parameters are searched via CS algorithm. In the case study,the lifetime data come from the life testing of diesel injectors and are fitted by the twocomponent Weibull mixture. Regarding the maximum absolute error and the accumulative absolute error between estimated and observed values as the accuracy index of parameter estimation,the results of four parameter estimation methods that the graphic estimation method,the nonlinear least square method,the optimization method based on particle swarm optimization( PSO) and the proposed method are compared. The result shows that the proposed method is more efficient and more accurate than the other three methods.