6.2
V and V and Balance
6.2.1 Have Hand Calculations Died?
A few years ago, I finished a retaining-wall design, and sent my recommendations to the project structural engineer. The structural engineer finished his calculations and construction drawings and submitted the design to his client, a United States National Laboratory (to remain un-named). Nearly six months after finishing this rather ordinary retaining-wall project, I received a phone call from the structural engineer's office manager. The office manager wanted proof that the geotechnical computer programs that I used had been V and V’d. I asked innocently, “What is V and V?” He replied, verification and validation to NQA-1 quality standards. I told him that our company has quality plans for commercial and federal projects including federal work done to NQA-1 quality standards, but the retaining wall in question was designed to commercial quality standards, as agreed to in our contract. I reminded him that we submitted a received approval of a work plan for the retaining-wall design, and it was clearly not totally NQA-1 compliant.
One of the computer programs I used on the retaining-wall project was an Excel spreadsheet. No problem, Excel had an exemption from the rigorous V and V because it was a commonly used math program. The other program used was a standard geotechnical computer program (to remain un-named) developed by a well-respected group of university professors working on federally funded research. This geotechnical ...
