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

Abstract

The use of computational simulation is increasingly relied upon as performance requirements for engineered systems increase and as a means of reducing testing. Model verification and validation (V&V) provides a mechanism to develop computational models that are utilized for engineering predictions and ensure decisions with quantified confidence. 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 verification and validation of an analytical and computational model used to predict the penetration depth of explosively released fragments into the containment vessel structure. A systematic approach of model V&V is used to compare model predictions and experiments and establish metrics to quantify confidence. The use of uncertainty quantification is an essential part of V&V as there are inherent and subjective uncertainties in the model that must be correlated with the uncertainties from the experiments.