American Society of Mechanics Engineers

Council on Codes and Standards

Board on Performance Test Codes

Committee on

Verification and Validation in Computational Solid Mechanics

  Presentation to ASME Board on Performance Test Codes  [164KB PDF]

Report on the Presentation to the Board on Performance Test Codes
                         Len Schwer & Bill Oberkampf (9 Nov 00)

As requested by the ASME Council on Codes and Standards (CCS) in their
meeting 7 Sep 00, Len Schwer and Bill Oberkampf made a presentation to
the Board on Performance Testing Codes (BPTC) on 9 Nov 00. The purpose of
the presentation was to petition them to accept the Verification &
Validation Committee as a new standards committee under their Board.

We were warmly received by the Board and several Board members asked
questions about our proposal, both during and after the presentation.
Although most Board members were unfamiliar with the issues of verification
and validation in computational simulation, they asked insightful questions
concerning the purpose of V&V and who would be the customers of these new
standards. Even though our proposed committee is considerably different from
their existing committees, they recognized the need to improve methods for
evaluating the accuracy and reliability of computational modeling.

As an indication of the importance ASME is apparently directing to our
petition, we were very fortunate to have our presentation attended by Mr.
Donald Frikken, ASME Senior VP for Codes and Standards, and Ms. June Ling,
Associate Executive Director Codes and Standards. During the Board's
discussion period Don Frikken, expressed the CCS interest in our activity
and their desire to find a Board that would act as our home.

The Board voted unanimously to accept our petition to become a standards
committee under their direction. During the next few months they asked that
we provide them with:

1. Committee name
2. Committee Charter
3. Recommendation to the Board for either using an existing series number or
a new series number for our standards publications on V&V

The Board assigned Jack Burns, Burns Engineering, and Glenn Steele,
Mississippi State University, as our liaisons to the Board.

In a related BPTC agenda item, that immediately followed our V&V agenda
item, Mr. Bernard Hrubala, ASME Vice President Board on Safety Codes &
Standards (BSCS), made a suggestion that the BPTC consider accepting a
transfer of the newly formed Biomedical Device Standard Committee from the
BSCS to the BPTC, in an effort to consolidate the V&V portion of the
biomedical device effort with the efforts of the our newly accepted V&V
Committee. After a discussion period, the BPTC decided not to accept the
transfer on the basis that the biomedical device group is primarily design
focused and therefore not appropriate for the BPTC.