Car crash models are generally complex with a great number of elements, materials, properties, springs, interfaces, and so on. If the numerical results obtained do not match the physical behavior, or if the computation stops with error messages, it is not always easy to find the origin of the modeling problem. A method is needed to check models when troubles occur.

The following guidelines help to correct a majority of problems; but not all of them. Complex models with simplifying modeling assumptions are difficult to correct and require an experienced user.

Potential problems in complex models can be tracked and resolved in three steps:

The following sections describe the debugging method.