Chapter 3 - Developments in studying real world conditions for accurate simulation and successful accelerated testing

Abstract

This chapter considers the groups of input influences that need to be studied for accurate simulation. It considers in detail the multi-environmental (climatic) influences, why real world simulations are usually not accurate, and why testing results from the laboratory or proving ground do not correspond with real world results. It will demonstrate typical multi-environmental coverage, checklist various environmental pairing scenarios, and considers the connections of environmental factors with machinery and people. It also describes climatic characteristics as external conditions of machinery use, including the classification and characteristics of world climate for engineering analysis, the characteristics of the radiation regime, the thermal regime, daily variations of air temperature, air humidity and rains, wind speed, atmospheric phenomena, biological factors; the influence of climatic factors and atmospheric phenomena on the properties of the materials and the system “operator-machine-subject of the machine influence”. It also provides consideration of the influence of daily and yearly fluctuations of air temperatures and rapid changes of climatic factors, including the influence of water (moisture), air humidity, fog, and dew, as well as the characteristics of the combined influences of basic climatic factors. This chapter also considers climatic models that act as mathematical representations of the interactions between atmosphere, oceans, and land surface, such as ice—and the sun.