Verification and validation of simulations in a rail vehicle certification context

ABSTRACTThis article presents recent progress in the application of validation methodologies for the assessment of rail vehicle dynamics by computer simulation. Peculiarities of vehicles’ on-track tests, which represent the experiments, used for model validation, are discussed and the terms validation as well as application domain are introduced. This is followed by a comparison of recently suggested validation metrics for rail vehicle models. The validation approach developed in the DynoTRAIN project and introduced in EN 14363:2016 is applied to investigate the impact of signal synchronization and to evaluate new findings regarding the effect of section selection used for the validation. The DynoTRAIN validation methodology shows a small sensitivity to the inaccuracy of the signals synchronization. The result of this model validation assessment remains either ‘validated’ or ‘not validated,’ rather independently of the selected set of test sections. This confirms the robustness of the DynoTRAIN validation...