This guide is designed for CFD students, researchers and authors preparing defensible technical work for a thesis or journal paper. Apply the recommendations to the actual physics, solver, evidence and publication requirements of your project.
Define uncertain inputs and outputs
List boundaries, properties, geometry, model choices and numerical settings affecting the quantities of interest.
- Ranges/distributions
- Data sources
- Correlations
- Decision outputs
Separate uncertainty categories
Numerical, input, experimental and model-form uncertainty require different tests and language.
- Mesh/timestep
- Operating variability
- Measurement error
- Physical-model limitation
Design efficient sensitivity cases
Use screening, factorial designs, response surfaces or variance methods appropriate to dimensionality and cost.
- One-at-a-time limits
- Interaction effects
- Sampling budget
- Reproducibility
Propagate uncertainty
Report output ranges or distributions and identify dominant contributors.
- Monte Carlo/surrogates
- Confidence intervals
- Ranking stability
- Tail risks
Connect uncertainty to decisions
A design ranking is meaningful only if differences exceed relevant uncertainty.
- Robustness
- Overlap of intervals
- Extrapolation
- Evidence limits
Continue the complete publication workflow
Connect this topic to research design, CFD execution, verification, validation, manuscript development and peer review.
Related Abecator resources
Questions about applying this guide
How should How to Perform CFD Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis be used in a CFD research project?
Use this guide as a documented decision step within the wider research workflow. Record the assumptions, evidence, outputs and limitations so the work can be understood, reproduced and defended during journal review.
Can Abecator support only this stage or the complete publication workflow?
Yes. Students and researchers can request focused support for this stage, collaborate with Abecator on selected tasks, or choose complete support from research idea and CFD execution through manuscript preparation, submission and reviewer revisions.
Move your CFD research from idea to publication
Abecator can shape the research question, build and run the CFD cases, analyse the data, develop the manuscript, support submission and respond to reviewers. Choose complete execution, close collaboration or focused help—and decide how involved you want to be.