Methods of designing accelerated reliability verification tests for electrical energy meters based on Lomax distribution

Long test times and large sample sizes make it unaffordable for industries to conduct reliability verification tests on high-reliability and long-life products. Accelerated reliability verification tests have therefore attracted extensive attention worldwide and present significant challenges for the electrical energy meters industry. In this study, the failure rate of parameters of the exponential distribution is considered to obey a gamma distribution, which updates the Lomax distribution using conditional probability and applies it to describe the life of electrical energy meters. The reliability data from similar or historical electrical energy meters are synthesized to address the small sample problems encountered in reliability verificat ion tests. Based on the Lomax distribution, the operating characteristic functions for three indices, reliable life, failure rate, and average life, of the electrical energy meter are constructed. By introducing an acceleration factor, an acceleration equation for the electrical energy meter is developed based on the Lomax distribution. Accelerated reliability verification tests for the electrical energy meter are provided, taking into account the varying risk levels of different consumers. Validation research is conducted using examples, offering a novel approach for accelerated reliability verification tests of small samples, high-reliability, and long-life products. This study provides new insights for the accelerated reliability verification tests of small samples, high-reliability, and long-life products.