Verification and Validation of a Penetration Model for the Design of a Blast Containment Vessel Part 1: Validation Experiments

Abstract

Model verification and validation (V&V) provides a mechanism to develop computational models that can be used to make engineering predictions and decisions with quantified confidence. Model V&V procedures are needed to reduce the time, cost and risk associated with component and full-scale testing of products, materials and engineered systems. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Dynamic Experimentation (DynEx) program is designing and validating steel blast containment vessels using limited experiments coupled with computational models. This paper describes the testing program for the validation experiments in support of a verification and validation process for an analytical and computational model used to predict the penetration depth of explosively released fragments into the containment vessel structure. The V&V process is described as well as pre-test analytic modeling and validation experiments. Uncertainties in the experiments that may influence model validation are discussed from an uncertainty quantification perspective since there are inherent and subjective uncertainties in the model that must be correlated with the uncertainties from the experiments.