A New Extended Weibull Distribution: Estimation Methods and Applications in Engineering, Physics, and Medicine

Increasing the amount of data with complex dynamics requires the constant updating of statistical distributions. This study aimed to introduce a new three-parameter distribution, named the new exponentiated Weibull (NEW) distribution, by applying the logarithmic transformation to the exponentiated Weibull distribution. The exponentiated Weibull distribution is a powerful generalization of the Weibull distribution that includes several classical distributions as special cases—Weibull, exponential, Rayleigh, and exponentiated exponential—which make it capable of capturing diverse forms of hazard functions. By combining the advantages of the logarithmic transformation and exponentiated Weibull, the new distribution offers great flexibility in modeling different forms of hazard functions, including increasing, J-shaped, reverse-J-shaped, and bathtub-shaped functions. Some mathematical properties of the NEW distribution were studied. Moreover, four different methods of estimation—the maximum likelihood (ML), least squares (LS), Cramer–Von Mises (CVM), and percentile (PE) methods—were employed to estimate the distribution parameters. To assess the performance of the estimates, three simulation studies were conducted, showing the benefit of the ML method, followed by the PE method, in estimating the model parameters. Additionally, five datasets were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the new distribution in fitting real data. Compared with some Weibull-type extensions, the results demonstrate the superiority of the new distribution in modeling various forms of real data and provide evidence for the applicability of the new distribution.