Title: Development of a programme for the quantitative comparison of a pair of curves

Authors: M. Mongiardini; M.H. Ray; C.A. Plaxico

Addresses: Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 130 Whittier Building, 2200 Vine Street, Lincoln, NE 68583-0853, USA ' Roadsafe LLC, 12 Main Street, Canton, ME 04221, USA ' Roadsafe LLC, 12 Main Street, Canton, ME 04221, USA

Abstract: Assessing the level of match between two curves is a recurring operation in most scientific fields, which should be performed as objectively as possible. In this research, a computer programme was developed to quantitatively compare two curves through various metrics. A series of options were implemented to appropriately preprocess the curves before being compared, with both the input and preprocessing operations managed through intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The reliability of the objective scores computed by the programme was investigated by analysing the results obtained from the comparison of two pairs of curves against the subjective judgement of a group of experts. Also, as an example of application for the validation of a numerical model, an acceleration curve from a vehicular fullscale crash test was compared with the corresponding time history obtained from a finite element (FE) analysis. Both the comparison with the subjective expert evaluations and the validation case indicated this programme as a promising and useful tool for the objective comparison of curves.

Keywords: comparison metrics; verification; validation; V&V; numerical modelling; LS-DYNA; roadside safety; curve matching; curve pairs; acceleration curve; vehicle crash tests; finite element analysis; FEA; vehicle safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2013.052294

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2013 Vol.46 No.2, pp.128 - 141

Published online: 29 May 2013 *

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