Title: Accuracy limits of modelling predictions of multivariable heat and mass transfer processes

Authors: Boris M. Menin

Addresses: Mechanical and Refrigeration Consultant Expert, 9 Yakov Efrat St., Beer-Sheba 8464209, Israel

Abstract: Engineers and scientists are often faced with the problem of the concordance of the observed process/phenomena and measured and/or simulated data. This paper presents a possible and relatively intuitive dimensionless metric for use in the results comparison. The proposed metric is able to quantify the a-priori agreement/disagreement between the chosen physical-mathematical model and the required accuracy of field experiments. The present vision is based on the calculated comparative error caused by the finite number of recorded variables and the variation range of the main target variable characterising the phenomena researched. It is shown that the introduced approach allows quantifying the proximity of the physical-mathematical model chosen by conscious observer and experimental results of heat- and mass-transfer processes realised in field tests. Examples are introduced.

Keywords: accuracy limits; a priori error analysis; comparative errors; heat transfer; mass transfer; information theory; mathematical modelling; multivariable phenomena; theory of similarity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMNO.2015.074002

International Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Optimisation, 2015 Vol.6 No.4, pp.321 - 336

Received: 23 May 2015
Accepted: 07 Oct 2015
Published online: 31 Dec 2015 *

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