Use of computer simulation in support of litigation.

Engineering analysis has become indispensable in litigation cases, but two significant tasks face engineers who testify as technical experts: (1) performance of complex analysis; and (2) presentation of results to nontechnical audiences such as juries. Computer simulations facilitate these tasks. Advantages of using computer simulations in crash victim dynamics are presented and the challenges prudent engineers face in using simulations, including input parameters, processing, and output are addressed. Other important issues are validation against experiments, the reasonableness of conclusions drawn from simulations, and admissibility of results as evidence. Specific simulation programs are surveyed and examples of simulations are presented.