Taylor and Francis Group, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 487(104), p. 929-943
DOI: 10.1198/jasa.2009.ap06623
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The CRASH computer model simulates the effect of a vehicle colliding against different barrier types. If it accurately represents real vehicle crash-worthiness, the computer model can be of great value in various aspects of vehicle design, such as the setting of timing of air bag releases. The goal of this study is to address the problem of validating the computer model for such design goals, based on utilizing computer model runs and experimental data from real crashes. This task is complicated by the fact that (i) the output of this model consists of smooth functional data, and (ii) certain types of collision have very limited data. We address problem (i) by extending existing Gaus-sian process-based methodology developed for models that produce real-valued output, and resort to Bayesian hierarchical modeling to attack problem (ii).