Model quality and safety studies

The paper describes the EC initiative on model quality assessment and emphasises some of the problems encountered in the selection of data from field tests used in the evaluation process. Further, it discusses the impact of model uncertainties in safety studies of industrial plants. The model evaluation group (MEG) is a European initiative on evaluation of technical models used within the major industrial hazard area and is supported by the EC DGXII, Directorate–General for Science, Research and Development. Closely related to MEG is REDIPHEM, which is the acronym of a research project supported by the EC Environment Research Programme focusing on assessment of the quality of experimental data and models for dense gas dispersion created within the EC funded research programmes. Technical models are used in a number of areas of industrial hazards assessment. It is becoming more and more apparent that most of these have never been through a procedure of evaluation, but nonetheless are used to assist in maki...