Significance of correlation in the virtual world of structural analysis

In today’s competitive environment, speed to market is important in ensuring success of the product. However, new products cannot be handed over to customers without through verification and validation process. Hence, accelerating this process is the key in getting the product faster to the market. One way to accelerate physical testing is to integrate virtual verification into the workflow. Multiple design options can be evaluated virtually and then the shortlisted design can be sent for physical testing. However, for this integration to work flawlessly and to build trust in the simulation model, it must match the behavior of the physical model ‘exactly.’ How much ‘exact’ is good enough, can be quantified by means of Correlation. This is the important piece for effective testing and simulation integration. This work explores the concept of ‘correlation’ and different approaches of quantifying it. Multiple case studies are used for demonstration purposes. The approach for comparing ‘direct’ outputs like hydraulic actuators forces or strain measured using strain gages has been demonstrated. Also, a chassis case study is used to demonstrate crack initiation life correlation. Additional machine structures example shows correlation for crack propagation life. The setup details, along with advantages and challenges in each of the approaches is discussed in detail.