A Summary of Industrial Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification Procedures in Computational Fluid Dynamics

Published

March 24, 2020

Author(s)

DongHun Yeo

Abstract

Within a variety of CFD applications, their maturity levels can be significantly varied, depending upon e.g., modeling approach and progress of application skills. Recently, CWE (Computational Wind Engineering) has been developed with great attentions from wind and structural engineers as a substitute for wind tunnel experimentation but is still in a developing stage. For making CWE matured in wind and structural engineering, the credibility in CWE simulations should be built. The fundamental elements for building the credibility are (i) quality of physical modeling, (ii) quality of users/analysts performing the simulations and using the results, (iii) verification and validation (V&V) activities, and (iv) uncertainty quantification of the simulation results. The quality of computational simulations is highly dependent of appropriateness of a mathematical model for representing the physics of interest and CFD users’ depth of understanding the details in the model and the associated simulation results. The verification and validation are independent procedures that work together as the primary processes for assessing the accuracy of simulation results. Uncertainty quantification is the process that identifies, characterizes, and estimates quantitatively the factors in the analysis affecting the accuracy of simulation results. These are necessary conditions but not sufficient for the credibility of simulations. This report deals in detail with (i) the sources of inaccuracy in CFD simulations, (ii) concepts and procedures of V&V and uncertainty quantification, and (iii) the usage of validation level.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 8298

Report Number

8298

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

Computational Fluid Dynamics, Computational Wind Engineering, Error, Uncertainty, Validation, Verification.

Citation

Yeo, D. (2020), A Summary of Industrial Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification Procedures in Computational Fluid Dynamics, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8298 (Accessed May 10, 2026)

Additional citation formats