DATA VALIDATION: A PREREQUISITE TO PERFORMING DATA UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS

Abstract

There are increasing demands, particularly from government agencies, to perform uncertainty analysis in order to assign accuracy bounds to telemetered data from environmental measuring transducers (pressure, acceleration, force, strain, temperature, etc.). Several requirements must be fulfilled before measurement uncertainty analysis is justified. These requirements include good measurement system design practices such as adequate low- and high-frequency response and data-sampling rates, appropriate anti-aliasing filter selection^(1), proper grounding and shielding, and many more. In addition, there are applications (e.g., flight test) in which the environment of the transducer varies with time and/or location. In these applications, it is a requisite that data-validation be performed to establish that an individual transducer responds only to the environmental stimulus that it is intended to measure. Without this validation component designed into the telemetry system, assigned accuracy bounds can be totally meaningless. This paper presents examples and describes techniques for data validation of signals from environmental measuring transducers.