A Mathematical Representation for Mechanical Model Assessment: Numerical Model Qualification Method

This article illustrates a model selection management approach for virtual prototypes in interactive simulations. In those numerical simulations, the virtual prototype and its environment are modelled as a multi-agent system, where every entity (prototype, human, etc.) is modelled as an agent. In particular, virtual prototyping agents that provide mathematical models of mechanical behaviour in form of computational methods are considered. This work argues that selection of an appropriate model in a changing environment, supported by models’ characteristics, can be managed by the determination a priori of specific exploitation and performance measures of virtual prototype models. As different models exist to represent a single phenomenon, it is not always possible to select the best one under all possible circumstances of the environment. Instead the most appropriate shall be selecting according to the use case. The proposed approach consists in identifying relevant metrics or indicators for each group of models (e.g. entity models, global model), formulate their qualification, analyse the performance, and apply the qualification criteria. Then, a model can be selected based on the performance prediction obtained from its qualification. The authors hope that this approach will not only help to inform engineers and researchers about another approach for selecting virtual prototype models, but also assist virtual prototype engineers in the systematic or automatic model selection. Keywords—virtual prototype models; domain; qualification criterion; model qualification; model assessment; environmental modelling.