COMPUTER-ASSISTED COMPARISON OF ANALYSIS AND TEST RESULTS IN TRANSPORTATION EXPERIMENTS*

As a part of its ongoing research efforts, Sandia National Laboratories' Transportation Surety Center investigateS the integrity of various containment methods for hazardous materials transport, subject to anomalous structural and thermal events such as free-fall impacts, collisions, and fires in both open and confined areas. Since it is not possible to conduct field experiments for every set of possible conditions under which an actual transportation accident might occur, accurate modeling methods must be developed which will yield reliable simulations of the effects of accident events under various scenarios. This requires computer software which is capable of assimilating and processing data from experiments performed as benchmarks, as well as data obtained from numerical models that simulate the experiment Software tools which can present all of these results in a meaningful and useful way to the analyst are a critical aspect of this process. The intent of the data visualization effort in the Transportation Surety Center is twofold. First. improved data visualization provides an environment that enhances the interpretation of the results of simulations of structural and thermal accident events. Improved interpretation, in tum, increases the accuracy and reduces tum-around time of the simulation. In addition, the increased efficiency that results from improved data visualization methods translates into reduced product development costs, and contributes to the goal of a seamless mechanical product/data exchange. Second, effective data visualization improves client communications. The traditional method of communicating the results of an analysis to a customer in the form of reports and view graphs is becoming obsolete at an accelerating pace. Visualization methods allow the analyst to provide results to the customer in high-fidelity digital form, and subsequently as still frames or animations on a computer terminal or videotape. Computer animations are an excellent method for demonstrating the results of a dynamic simulation event to a client The purpose of this work is to provide software resources on a long term basis, and to ensure that the data visualization capabilities of the Center keep pace with advancing technology. This will provide leverage for its modeling and analysis abilities in a rapidly evolving hardware/software environment.