This was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress 2025, held in Salzburg, Austria from May 19–22, 2025.

Abstract

Simulation based methodologies are commonly used in research and industrial engineering. To achieve added-value through simulations, it is vital that these simulations comply with pre-defined quality criteria. For this reason, several simulation quality standards have evolved over time. They emerged out of different engineering needs and aim to formalize simulations according to specific aspects, like modeling, verification, or validation. Simulation technology has become even more capable. On one hand, simulation results are increasingly presented as predominant evidence in engineering decision processes. On the other hand, simulations are more frequently part of the product itself, which is to be engineered. For these reasons, novel simulation quality standards are currently being developed. Both sectors, the automotive industry and the railway industry are facing huge challenges. In automobile engineering, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are advancing in direction of full automated driving (AD). The shift to alternative propulsion systems will transform automobiles to subsystems of the energy system. In railway engineering, development, maintenance and operation activities are subject to continuous digitalization involving railway and infrastructure operators, vehicle manufacturers, and suppliers. In both domains, these efforts will unlock much needed eco-friendly and safe transport capacities for passengers and freight. There is a strong trend towards better vertical integration, i.e. to associate suppliers and manufacturers. Standardization helps all stakeholders to speak the same language. Also national authorities increasingly allow simulation, for various reasons mentioned earlier. This contribution has the potential to assist the simulation community in fulfillment of authority requirements, as standardization and codes of practice are pathways to success. In this context, it is necessary to identify applicable, relevant simulation quality standards, as they all follow very heterogeneous approaches. In this article, we draw the current state of the simulation quality standards landscape for automotive and railway engineering. We show the analysis of a carefully selected list of current and upcoming simulation quality standards by looking at their origins, scopes, objectives, and requirements. This contribution enables the simulation community to make an informed decision when it comes to simulation quality standard selection and deployment. It is intended to provide a scheme for orientation and guidance to all members of the simulation community. This includes simulation and test engineers, researchers, the management, and all decision and policy makers. At this point in time, it is not our intention to match simulation standards to specific simulation problems the community might encounter. To reach these goals, we analysed the simulation quality standards landscape and identified two key issues. First, the simulation quality standards landscape is highly diverse. Standards position themselves at various levels of abstraction and vary from generic to application specific. Second, the simulation quality standards landscape is about to change at this point in time, as the use of simulations increasingly exceeds conventional desktop engineering. For many new applications simulation represents the only feasible method for analysis or prediction, as physical testing is not economic, dangerous, or the number of possible test cases is beyond real world testing. Furthermore, simulation is often becoming an integral part of the application itself ('œDigital Twin'). In these cases, simulation helps to optimize the application, improve product quality or quality of service, and enables time and cost savings. As a consequence, the risk of simulations to deliver insufficient results must be considered and handled systematically. For these reasons, already existing standards may not be entirely suitable anymore. Some novel simulation quality standards do consider these issues and are therefore described in this contribution.