Theory of Uncertainty Analysis With Application to Naval Hydrodynamics (Keynote Paper)

The modern methodology for quantifying the quality of experimental data is uncertainty analysis. This paper is a review of current methods with some examples primarily from naval hydrodynamics. The methods described are applicable to fluids engineering. The paper discusses the history of uncertainty analysis, US and international standards on uncertainty analysis, verification and validation standards for computational fluid dynamics, and instrument calibration. One important result is that random loading in force calibration can produce a lower uncertainty estimate than sequential loading.