Experimentation, Validation, and Uncertainty Analysis for Engineers, 4th Edition

5DETAILED UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS: OVERVIEW AND DETERMINING RANDOM UNCERTAINTIES IN RESULTS

5-1 USING DETAILED UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS

In Chapter 3 we presented the basic methodology involved in both general and detailed uncertainty analysis, and here it is appropriate to consider how these techniques are useful in different phases of an experimental program and how they fit together with the concepts of different orders of replication level that we discussed previously. An overview of some of the uses of uncertainty analysis in the different phases of an experimental program is given in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 Uncertainty Analysis in Experimentation

Phase of Experiment	Type of Uncertainty Analysis	Uses of Uncertainty Analysis
Planning	General	Choose experiment to answer a question; preliminary design.
Design	Detailed	Choose instrumentation (zeroth-order estimates); detailed design (Nth-order estimates).
Construction Debugging	Detailed Detailed	Guide decisions on changes, etc. Verify and qualify operation; first-order and Nth-order comparisons.
Execution	Detailed	Balance checks and monitoring operation of apparatus; choice of test points run.
Data analysis	Detailed	Guide to choice of analysis techniques.
Reporting	Detailed	Systematic uncertainties, random uncertainties, and combined uncertainties reported.

As we saw in Chapter 4, general uncertainty analysis is used in the planning phase of an experimental program and is useful in ensuring that a given experiment ...