The Kumaraswamy modified Weibull distribution: theory and applications

Abstract

A five-parameter extension of the Weibull distribution capable of modelling a bathtub-shaped hazard rate function is introduced and studied. The beauty and importance of the new distribution lies in its ability to model both monotone and non-monotone failure rates that are quite common in lifetime problems and reliability. The proposed distribution has a number of well-known lifetime distributions as special sub-models, such as the Weibull, extreme value, exponentiated Weibull, generalized Rayleigh and modified Weibull (MW) distributions, among others. We obtain quantile and generating functions, mean deviations, Bonferroni and Lorenz curves and reliability. We provide explicit expressions for the density function of the order statistics and their moments. For the first time, we define the log-Kumaraswamy MW regression model to analyse censored data. The method of maximum likelihood is used for estimating the model parameters and the observed information matrix is determined. Two applications illustrate the potentiality of the proposed distribution.