Introduction
Performing measurements is a process similar to an industrial production process. There are several phases to be observed. In each of these phases specific information is needed. The information is sometimes for the sake of the process itself, however in most cases the information has to be passed to the next phase. Items like purpose, identification, reliability and accuracy have to be addressed and have to be secured. In each phase one must be able to observe the process, see what has been produced, evaluate and visualise results. For simple and incidental processes these actions can be performed manually. As an ad hoc solution data is read into a spreadsheet programm and -when needed- graphs are drawn. When the process becomes more complicated and when a series of measurements has been performed, a more structural solution is needed, where checking and controling the process can be done semi-automatically.
The phases
As a paradigm we distinghuish five phases.
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An very nice and convincing example of the way GeoDelft has implemented this methodology for a series of centrifuge tests can be read in this pdf document, This document is made available by the courtesy of Samsung JV. GEF has been used for the purpose of exchanging information between phases and to the client. This implementation has been proven to be successful, since all necessary information of the experiment is either present in the files or can be retrieved, using the information provided in the files.
Another example of a successful implementation can be found in the phases of a series of tests on micro instability, which were preformed in 2004. The document which describes the different phases is not as spectacular as the previously mentioned pdf document, however the accompanying data are not disclosed. Therefore we illustrate the use of phases by means of files of the micro instability test. Results of these tests have been published on the ICPMG conference of 2006. All files of test 5 have been compressed into a ZIP file.
The following actions have been done during the four phases:
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