Code verification of soil dynamics simulations: A case study using the method of numerically manufactured solutions

Through quantitative measurement of the accuracy and the convergence of error, code verification can objectively assess the quality of a simulation code. A lack of analytical benchmark solution for nonlinear problems makes it difficult to verify soil dynamics simulations in geotechnical engineering....
Ausführliche Beschreibung

Through quantitative measurement of the accuracy and the convergence of error, code verification can objectively assess the quality of a simulation code. A lack of analytical benchmark solution for nonlinear problems makes it difficult to verify soil dynamics simulations in geotechnical engineering. To overcome such difficulty, this study makes use of a novel code verification technique, the method of numerically manufactured solutions (MNMS). By utilizing MNMS, the accuracy of a simulation code for nonlinear soil dynamics problems was measured. The orders of the convergence rate of the errors, with respect to the spatial and to the temporal discretization, were found to be in good agreement with the theoretical orders of the numerical methods. By demonstrating the applicability of MNMS for verifying nonlinear soil dynamics simulations, it is hoped that the concept and the necessity of code verifications can be appreciated for simulations of geotechnical engineering problems. Ausführliche Beschreibung