ASTM D6122-20a

1.1 This practice covers requirements for the validation of measurements made by laboratory, field, or process (online or at-line) infrared (near- or mid-infrared analyzers, or both), and Raman analyzers, used in the calculation of physical, chemical, or quality parameters (that is, properties) of liquid petroleum products and fuels. The properties are calculated from spectroscopic data using multivariate modeling methods. The requirements include verification of adequate instrument performance, verification of the applicability of the calibration model to the spectrum of the sample under test, and verification that the uncertainties associated with the degree of agreement between the results calculated from the infrared or Raman measurements and the results produced by the PTM used for the development of the calibration model meets user-specified requirements. Initially, a limited number of validation samples representative of current production are used to do a local validation. When there is an adequate number of validation samples with sufficient variation in both property level and sample composition to span the model calibration space, the statistical methodology of Practice D6708 can be used to provide general validation of this equivalence over the complete operating range of the analyzer. For cases where adequate property and composition variation is not achieved, local validation shall continue to be used.