Computer Simulation - Data Preparation

Data Preparation

The external data requirements of simulations and models vary widely. For some, the input might be just a few numbers (for example, simulation of a waveform of AC electricity on a wire), while others might require terabytes of information (such as weather and climate models).

Input sources also vary widely:

• Sensors and other physical devices connected to the model;
• Control surfaces used to direct the progress of the simulation in some way;
• Current or Historical data entered by hand;
• Values extracted as by-product from other processes;
• Values output for the purpose by other simulations, models, or processes.

Lastly, the time at which data is available varies:

• "invariant" data is often built into the model code, either because the value is truly invariant (e.g. the value of π) or because the designers consider the value to be invariant for all cases of interest;
• data can be entered into the simulation when it starts up, for example by reading one or more files, or by reading data from a preprocessor;
• data can be provided during the simulation run, for example by a sensor network;

Because of this variety, and that many common elements exist between diverse simulation systems, there are a large number of specialized simulation languages. The best-known of these may be Simula (sometimes Simula-67, after the year 1967 when it was proposed). There are now many others.

Systems that accept data from external sources must be very careful in knowing what they are receiving. While it is easy for computers to read in values from text or binary files, what is much harder is knowing what the accuracy (compared to measurement resolution and precision) of the values is. Often it is expressed as "error bars", a minimum and maximum deviation from the value seen within which the true value (is expected to) lie. Because digital computer mathematics is not perfect, rounding and truncation errors will multiply this error up, and it is therefore useful to perform an "error analysis" to check that values output by the simulation are still usefully accurate.

Even small errors in the original data can accumulate into substantial error later in the simulation. While all computer analysis is subject to the "GIGO" (garbage in, garbage out) restriction, this is especially true of digital simulation. Indeed, it was the observation of this inherent, cumulative error, for digital systems that is the origin of chaos theory.