Code Verification, Solution Verification and Validation in RANS Solvers

Abstract

The maturing of CFD codes for practical calculations of complex turbulent flows implies the need to establish the credibility of the results by Verification & Validation. These two activities have different goals: Verification is a purely mathematical exercise that intends to show that we are “solving the equations right”, whereas Validation is a science/engineering activity that intends to show that we are “solving the right equations”. Verification is in fact composed of two different activities: Code Verification and Solution Verification. Code Verification intends to verify that a given code solves correctly the equations of the model that it contains by error evaluation. On the other hand, Solution Verification intends to estimate the error of a given calculation, for which in general the exact solution is not known. Validation intends to estimate modelling errors by comparison with experimental data. The paper gives an overview of procedures for Code Verification, Solution Verification and Validation. Examples of the three types of exercises are presented for simple test cases demonstrating the advantages of performing Verification and Validation exercises.