New criteria for the experimental validation of CFD simulations

• Optimization of gas meter calibration stand by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics.
• The flow profiles in most important sections were calculated with the use of CFD.
• The measurements of flow profiles were taken with the use of hot-wire anemometer.
• New criteria for the comparison of measured and calculated flow profiles were proposed.

As CFD methods are still not perfect, they usually need experimental validation. Difficulties have been encountered during the experimental validation of CFD calculation results in quantitatively assessing the consistency between experiments and numerical simulations. It seems that existing criteria are only suitable for the comparison of experiments of the same type, thus, experiments vs. experiments or simulations vs. simulations. New criteria enabling the quantitative comparison of measurement results with computational results have been proposed. The criteria have proven to be very useful for the validation of CFD calculations of a high pressure gas meter calibration facility.