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

PREFACE

When we first agreed to produce a fourth edition, our plan was to update some material on the Monte Carlo Method (MCM) and to add a few examples. However, we quickly realized two things.

First, since we are both now retired from our professor day jobs, this edition is the first where we have the luxury of adequate time.

Second, since publication of the first edition we have taught our two-day short course based on the book to more than 125 classes containing people of almost every conceivable engineering and scientific background. Using what we learned from their questions and suggestions, we adjusted the sequence and logic of the presentation of the basic concepts in the course—and that sequence and logic no longer corresponded to the presentation in the book.

In this fourth edition, we have updated the sequence of presentation of basic ideas by introducing some topics earlier and by expanding the discussion of others. The chapter on uncertainty propagation has been rewritten to stress that the MCM has become the primary method for propagating uncertainties. This revised Chapter 3 also more clearly shows our concepts of “general uncertainty analysis” and “detailed uncertainty analysis” and shows how to use a spreadsheet to apply the MCM even in complex uncertainty propagation situations. The presentation of detailed uncertainty analysis has been divided into three chapters: determining random uncertainties in results, determining systematic uncertainties in results, ...