Significance of Correlation in the Virtual World of Structural Analysis

In today’s competitive environment, speed to market is important in ensuring the success of the product. Hence, accelerating the process of product verification and validation becomes imperative. One way to make the testing process more efficient is to integrate virtual verification and physical testing into the workflow. Multiple design options can be evaluated virtually, and then the shortlisted design can be evaluated using physical testing. However, for this integration to work, the virtual model should match the behavior of the physical model ‘exactly.’ How much ‘exact’ is good enough, can be quantified by means of correlation. This work explores the concept of ‘correlation’ and different approaches to quantifying it. The approach for comparing ‘direct’ outputs like hydraulic actuators forces or stress and strains measured using gages from tests, with the simulation outputs is the most feasible option. Also, a chassis case study is used to demonstrate crack initiation life correlation. Additional examples show correlation for crack propagation life. The setup details, along with advantages and challenges in each of the approaches, are discussed in detail.