Development of a Software for the Comparison of Curves During the Verification and Validation of Numerical Models

This paper describes the development of the Roadside Safety Verification and Validation Program (RSVVP), a software that automatically assesses the similarities and differences between two curves. This program was developed to assist engineers and analysts in performing curve comparison during the verification and validation process of a numerical model. RSVVP was designed to automatically preprocess the two input curves to make them comparable. Also, in order to ensure the most accurate comparison as possible, several options are available for the pre-processing of the input curves before the comparison metrics are computed. Data can be filtered and synchronized or any shift/drift effect can be removed. Once the signals have been pre-processed, the user can select to compute the values of one or more of the available sixteen different shape-comparison metrics. Any operation, from the input of the curves and selection of the pre-processing options till the final visualization of the results is accessible through an easy and intuitive graphical user interface. The numerical results are automatically saved by the program into a convenient spreadsheet format and the graphs are saved as bitmap images for any further investigation. Simple examples using an analytical shape are presented to illustrate the characteristics of the metrics. Also, the comparison of the acceleration time histories of a full-scale test involving a small car and the corresponding Ls-Dyna simulation is presented as an example of application of the metrics in the validation process of a numerical model.