Evaluation of measurement uncertainty based on quasi-Monte-Carlo method in the large diameter measurement

Abstract. The way of measuring diameter by use of measuring bow height and chord length is commonly adopted for the large diameter work piece. In the process of computing the diameter of large work piece, measurement uncertainty is an important parameter and is always employed to evaluate the reliability of the measurement results. Therefore, it is essential to present reliable methods to evaluate the measurement uncertainty, especially in precise measurement. Because of the limitations of low convergence and unstable results of the Monte-Carlo (MC) method, the quasi-Monte-Carlo (QMC) method is used to estimate the measurement uncertainty. The QMC method is an improvement of the ordinary MC method which employs highly uniform quasi random numbers to replace MC’s pseudo random numbers. In the process of evaluation, first, more homogeneous random numbers (quasi random numbers) are generated based on Halton’s sequence. Then these random numbers are transformed into the desired distribution random numbers. The desired distribution random numbers are used to simulate the measurement errors. By computing the simulation results, measurement uncertainty can be obtained. An experiment of cylinder diameter measurement and its uncertainty evaluation are given. In the experiment, the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement method, MC method, and QMC method are validated. The result shows that the QMC method has a higher convergence rate and more stable evaluation results than that of the MC method. Therefore, the QMC method can be applied effectively to evaluate the measurement uncertainty.