Comparison of sensitivity measures in probabilistic fracture mechanics

Probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) simulates the behavior of cracked structures and propagates uncertainties from input parameters to a failure probability or its uncertain estimate. In nuclear technology, this approach supports the assessment of the rupture probability of highly reliable pipes, which is an important parameter for the safety analysis of a nuclear power plant. For the appropriate probabilistic modelling of a structure with consideration of uncertainties, but also for the analysis of PFM application cases, the question arises, which input parameter of a probabilistic model has a higher impact on the estimate of computed failure probability, and which has a minor impact. This question is associated with the sensitivity measures or importance factors of the input parameters and their ranking concerning their influence.