Sensitivity Analysis for Hydraulic Models
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 11
Abstract
Sensitivity analysis is well recognized as being an important aspect of the responsible use of hydraulic models. This paper reviews a range of methods for sensitivity analysis. Two applications, one to a simple pipe bend example and the second to an advanced Shallow Water Equation solver, illustrate the deficiencies of standardized regression coefficients in the context of functionally nonlinear models. Derivatives and other local methods of sensitivity analysis are shown to give an incomplete picture of model response over the range of variability in the model inputs. The use of global variance-based sensitivity analysis is shown to be more general in its applicability and in its capacity to reflect nonlinear processes and the effects of interactions among variables.
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Acknowledgments
The research described in this paper was funded in part by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Grant Nos. UNSPECIFIEDGR/S76304/01 and UNSPECIFIEDEP/F020511/1.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 11 • November 2009
Pages: 959 - 969
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 3, 2008
Accepted: May 15, 2009
Published online: May 16, 2009
Published in print: Nov 2009
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