Simple distribution-free statistical assessment of structural integrity material property data

The assessment of structural integrity data requires a statistical assessment. However, most statistical analysis methods make some assumption regarding the underlying distribution. Here, a new distribution-free statistical assessment method based on a combination of Rank and Bimodal probability estimates is presented and shown to result in consistent estimates of different probability quantiles. The method is applicable for any data set expressed as a function of two parameters. Data for more than two parameters can always be expressed as different subsets varying only two parameters. In principle, this makes the method applicable to the analysis of more complex data sets. The strength in the statistical analysis method presented lies in the objectiveness of the result. There is no need to make any subjective assumptions regarding the underlying distribution, or of the relationship between the parameters considered.