Hypothesis Testing for Validation and Certification

Abstract: We develop a hypothesis testing framework for the formulation of the problems of 1) the validation of a simulation model and 2) using modeling to certify the performance of a physical system. These results are used to solve the extrapolative validation and certification problems, namely problems where the regime of interest is different than the regime for which we have experimental data. We use concentration of measure theory to develop the tests and analyze their errors. This work was stimulated by the work of Lucas, Owhadi, and Ortiz where a rigorous method of validation and certification is described and tested. In a remark we describe the connection between the two approaches. Moreover, as mentioned in that work these results have important implications in the Quantification of Margins and Uncertainties (QMU) framework. In particular, in a remark we describe how it provides a rigorous interpretation of the notion of confidence and new notions of margins and uncertainties which allow this interpretation. Since certain concentration parameters used in the above tests may be unkown, we furthermore show, in the last half of the paper, how to derive equally powerful tests which estimate them from sample data, thus replacing the assumption of the values of the concentration parameters with weaker assumptions. This paper is an essentially exact copy of one dated April 10, 2010.