Session: 02-01 Development and Application of Verification, Validation, Uncertainty Quantification Standards

Paper Number: 132931

132931 - Vvuq 90 Credibility Assurance Framework for Aircraft Structures 

ASME VVUQ 90 Standard for Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification in Computational Modeling of Airframe Structures

ABSTRACT

This presentation will give a brief overview of the new ASME Standard “Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification in Computational Modeling of Airframe Structures”. Today’s practice of airframe structural design, development, and certification, continues to rely heavily on extensive Physical Testing (PT) to validate analysis and substantiate structural capability.  Within the aerospace industry, this type of approach to compliance has resulted in unparalleled levels of safety in aviation when compared to all other transportation industries.  However, due to the ever-growing incorporation of new technologies and expanding the recommended flight envelopes, aircraft development costs and time to market have increased drastically.  The traditional way of certifying aircraft structures, with extensive reliance on PT to demonstrate compliance, affects the ability to innovate and offer new products to market in an efficient timeframe.  However, the use of Modelling and Simulation (M&S) in the development of aerospace products has seen significant advancements, and this trend is expected to continue. This development will enable Type Certificate Applicants to bring products to market quicker and support the introduction of more innovation in products and M&S capabilities.  Industry should be prepared to enable M&S to play a more prominent role in the certification practices based on best practices that support risk-informed applications of M&S.  However, for M&S to play a more prominent role, the M&S applications must be credible. This M&S Standard represents an important contribution to promote and support an increased role of M&S for airframe structure certification through a rigorous risk-informed process focused on the credibility of the M&S.

Existence of an accepted industry standard aids applicants in efficiently employing M&S and provides support to Regulators by having accepted approaches for credible M&S documented for applicants to apply consistently.   This Standard represents best practices for determining and justifying M&S credibility for the certification of airframe structure when extending M&S applications or capabilities, and possibly in combination with decreasing the amount of physical testing, beyond that which has been previously accepted.  This standard provides a pragmatic risk-informed Credibility Assurance Framework (CAF) for applying M&S to achieve and demonstrate credibility for certification.  It provides a set of requirements that need evidence to be satisfied to provide credibility to an M&S application.  It provides definition and guidance for the deliverables that provide the evidence to satisfy these requirements.  It also provides considerations for reviewing the credibility evidence and relies on internal company/organization processes for how to conduct these reviews.

The CAF determines the appropriate level of Verification, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification (VVUQ) activities based on the criticality and maturity of the specific M&S capabilities and applications. A graduated level of VVUQ activities and efforts is defined based on the criticality and risk associated with the M&S application. On the same basis, the CAF shall help tailor VVUQ efforts when M&S shall be used for compliance demonstration of similar new or derivative/similar structures for which VVUQ evidence of the baseline design already exists. This Standard facilitates the use of previously developed data that has been identified as both applicable and appropriate for the specific M&S or VVUQ application. The presentation will discuss the 4 separate process steps in the CAF process along with the credibility assessment performed after each process step.

Presenting Author: Torben Syberg The Boeing Company

Presenting Author Biography: Torben Syberg is a Principal Senior Technical Fellow that has been working at Boeing since 1991. He spent the first 28 years supporting Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division. In this role, Torben focused a significant portion of his time using, developing, and certifying structural analytical methods for Airframe Structure. Torben has contributed to the certification proposals and plans for most Boeing commercial airplanes. These certification plans have included several structural and loads analysis validation, as well as structural capability tests. For the last 4 years, as a Senior Technical Fellow, Torben has expanded his role at Boeing to an Enterprise and Industry role, focusing on developing and leveraging best practices for Verification and Validation. Torben is the Chair of the ASME VVUQ 90 subcommittee for Aircraft Structures, developing an Industry Standard for advancing Modeling and Simulation in support of Airframe Structures certification. This ASME subcommittee is comprised of 50+ members from 25 industry organizations that include airframe companies, regulators, research institutes and academia.