Inference for step-stress accelerated life tests under arbitrary right- censorship (Q1113251)

A step-stress test is an accelerated life test in which the stress on an unfailed item is allowed to increase at a preassigned time. Step-stress testing is considered here from a non-parametric point of view when the observations have been arbitrarily right-censored. Thus, no assumptions are made about the particular form of the underlying distribution of life lengths. An estimator of the underlying life distribution under the use conditions stress is obtained. The estimator is shown to be strongly consistent.