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Interior of a steel and glass pedestrian bridge showing the structural framing.

CEGR 492 · Engineering Design Studio · Completion and Review

Verification and Validation

Structural framing of a pedestrian bridge: members, connections and the load path a designer must trace.

Phase VI · Engineering Design Studio · Week 9–11

Verification, Validation, and Independent Check

Run independent checks, quantify differences and close out every discrepancy before submission.

ASCE QA/QC practice
Verification and validation coverage0%

Verification vs. validation

Verification — "are we solving the equations right?"

An independent reviewer repeats the calculation using a different method (hand calc, closed-form solution, alternate software) and confirms the numbers agree within an acceptable tolerance. This catches input errors, unit errors and modeling mistakes — not wrong assumptions.

Validation — "are we solving the right equations?"

Confirms the governing equations, load path, boundary conditions and failure mode actually represent the real structure and its real behavior. A perfectly verified model of the wrong problem is still wrong.

Every governing result on this project should carry both: (1) an independent hand check using a different method than the primary analysis, and (2) an order-of-magnitude sanity check (does the number feel right compared to a simple envelope estimate?).

No verification records yet

Add an independent check for each governing calculation, model result or design record.

Aggregate verification status

Items verified

0

Mean absolute deviation

0%

Unresolved items

0

Every verification item currently reads as acceptable.

Design warnings (1)

  • No independent verification records yet — every governing calculation needs a hand check.

Learning objectives

  • Perform independent checks
  • Quantify percent difference
  • Close discrepancies

Engineering judgment

  • The checker must not repeat the designer's method.
  • Differences above 10% need explanation.

FE Civil connection

Quality control

Handbook section: Professional Practice

Practice this FE topic

Module activities

Recommended next step

Constructability, Safety, Sustainability, and Resilience Review

Review the design for buildability, worker safety, sustainability performance and long-term resilience.

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