This conference paper was submitted for presentation at the NAFEMS World Congress 2025, held in Salzburg, Austria from May 19–22, 2025.

Abstract

VVUQ is the collective acronym for verification, validation and uncertainty quantification. In order to gain confidence in engineering simulation, it is necessary to undertake VVUQ activities, but it is also important that these activities are appropriate for the level of risk associated with the engineering application and the maturity of the simulation process. When the consequences of failure are high, such as in the aerospace or medical industries, or if simulation work is undertaken on a new problem or application that is not yet well understood or for which prior simulation work is not available, a significant VVUQ effort may be necessary and the time and financial investment for this effort should not be underestimated. The mere cost or inconvenience does not excuse simulation users from the responsibility of providing credible and reliable simulations. For lower risk applications, however, or where the problem is already well understood through previous simulation, maybe a reduced VVUQ effort can be justified. The level of VVUQ effort that may be appropriate is considered in this paper. In particular, three aspects are considered: 1. The importance of the conceptual model, since this forms the basis of both the simulation model and the referent used for the validation of the simulation model. 2. Simulation verification and uncertainty quantification, and specifically the maturity of the simulation process. 3. The level of validation rigor in terms of the recently published NAFEMS Guidelines for the Validation of Engineering Simulation (GVES). The importance of properly documenting each of these three aspects is discussed.