On the Validation of a Mathematical Model of a Foam Encapsulated System

As technical and non-technical constraints make testing of complex physical systems more restrictive, an increased reliance on modeling and simulation of large systems has arisen. Time and/or frequency domain analyzes of finite element models are performed on massively parallel computers. Due to the high consequence of these analyses, there is a need to quantitatively assess the predictive accuracy of finite element models used to simulate these complex physical systems relative to any available experimental results. In this paper we outline our understanding of model validation and the process followed to make a determination of the validity of a model. An example will be used to demonstrate the process.