Statistical validation of physical system models
- Sandia National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Univ. of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States). FAST Center for Structural Integrity of Aerospace Systems
It is common practice in applied mechanics to develop mathematical models for mechanical system behavior. Frequently, the actual physical system being modeled is also available for testing, and sometimes the test data are used to help identify the parameters of the mathematical model. However, no general-purpose technique exists for formally, statistically judging the quality of a model. This paper suggests a formal statistical procedure for the validation of mathematical models of physical systems when data taken during operation of the physical system are available. The statistical validation procedure is based on the bootstrap, and it seeks to build a framework where a statistical test of hypothesis can be run to determine whether or not a mathematical model is an acceptable model of a physical system with regard to user-specified measures of system behavior. The approach to model validation developed in this study uses experimental data to estimate the marginal and joint confidence intervals of statistics of interest of the physical system. These same measures of behavior are estimated for the mathematical model. The statistics of interest from the mathematical model are located relative to the confidence intervals for the statistics obtained from the experimental data. These relative locations are used to judge the accuracy of the mathematical model. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the application of the technique.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States); Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 390593
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-96-2047C; CONF-961179-2; ON: DE96014082; CNN: Contract F49620-95-1-051B; TRN: 96:005943
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 67. Shock and vibration symposium, Monterey, CA (United States), 18 Nov 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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