Simulation and Analysis Blog

This blog will be focused on simulation and analysis issues but will also give you a glimpse of what NAFEMS have been up to. We hope you enjoy it and if you have any feedback or suggestion or you want to contribute, please contact us at: marketing@nafems.org

Focus on: Joints & Connections

As most structures involve some sort of jointing or connection, often running into many thousands, or even millions of connections in one individual body, the analyses involved can be among the most difficult an engineer can face. As you can imagine, there has been a significant amount of activity

Focus on: Composites

NAFEMS has been engaged in activities related to the application of numerical methods to the analysis and assessment of composite materials for many years. We have produced a significant number of resources in the field, and we've collected some of these together here. Many of the resources below

Focus on: Simulation Data Management

The effective management of simulation data and process information is increasingly important as simulation becomes a core business practice and organizations rely on simulation results as the basis for business decisions. “Simulation Data Management (SDM)” is a technology which uses database

Analysis Origins - ABAQUS

May 1st 2018 from the analysis origins series by Lynn Manning In the first of this new regular series on the roots of some of the major players in the analysis world, we take a look at the origins of HKS and ABAQUS, from its beginnings in the 1970’s, to the present day. An Englishman, a Swede

Focus on: Computational Fluid Dynamics

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is now used for a huge range of applications across all industrial areas. Its use can provide insight that is difficult, dangerous or impossible to obtain from other methods, yet the complexity of the physics of interest and numerical methods used can prevent or

Focus on: Structural Dynamics

As you would expect, NAFEMS has produced a significant number of papers, articles, presentations and much more on the subject of structural dynamics. We've collected some of the more interesting pieces together here in this email. Many of the resources below are available free for you to download,

Focus on: Manufacturing Simulation

Manufacturing Simulation covers a multitude of processes, materials, techniques, and methods. Almost every engineered object in use in industry or in our homes has undergone a transforming process taking it from a raw material to a finished product. These processes change the shape and, in many

Focus on: Optimisation

Optimisation (or optimiZation, depending on where you're from..) is everywhere. If you're involved in a design, you're involved in the optimisation process. And if you think you're not, then you're probably mistaken... NAFEMS has long had a significant focus on optimisation in engineering analysis

FEA Puzzler: a Tale of Two Analysts - Solution

This FEA puzzler, published in the April issue of Benchmark, was devised by Barna Szabo of Engineering Software Research and Development, Inc. We had a number of great responses to the challenge (business card holders are now in the post) but very few respondents spotted the singularity that

FEA Puzzler: a Tale of Two Analysts

This FEA puzzler was devised by Barna Szabo of Engineering Software Research and Development, Inc. Prof Szabo will be giving a keynote presentation, “ On the Formulation and Application of Design Rules ” at the NAFEMS World Congress .The decision to including the FEA puzzler in benchmark was

From Wind Tunnels to High Performance Computing

April 19th 2016 by The CAE Guy Back in the 1930s, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created by congressional charter in May 1933 as a federally owned corporation in the United States and ultimately declared constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1936 [1, 2].The TVA was, in part,

Wind tunnels winding test engineers up

January 11th 2016 by The CAE Guy I confess to be continually surprised at the lack of understanding of Computational Fluid Dynamics by some (repeat, some) test engineers and managers. Not that they are not good at their jobs, but it comes up often enough that I have had to issue and edict that

Hendrix, Van Halen, Newton and Einstein

October 28th 2015 by The CAE Guy Back in the 1980s, when I was 16 or 17, I was arguing/discussing the “best” rock and roll guitarist off all time with a high school classmate of mine. While I remember it was a heated “debate” where we agreed to disagree: Long story short [1], I was advocating for

I want (CAE) candy!

July 22nd 2015 by The CAE Guy Springtime is in the air here in the Midwestern US, which means there is a transfer happening from indoor to outdoor activities. For me, that means the end of coaching volleyball to attempting to find time to ride my bicycle more (one of my New Year’s resolutions …),

The CFD interview

The CFD interview May 5th 2015 by The CAE Guy Now that I have a few months to further settle in to the aero-thermal department manager role, I have had the chance to think more about expanding the role of Computational Fluid Dynamics within the department and potentially within the rest of the

Recent live NAFEMS on-site classes and other updates

May 1st 2015 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager March was a hectic month - with three customized training classes in England and Scotland. First stop was Atkins Ground Engineering Group in Epsom, with a tailored Dynamics Analysis Course for some of the Geotechnical Engineering Staff.. Next

Big Time Manager

February 6th 2015 by The CAE Guy This is now what our two teenage daughters call me occasionally.Mostly in the context of when they think I am trying to get away with something. Such as: Oh, Dad thinks that since he’s a Big Time Manager now, he can do what he wants and not follow the rules. For

They've Found it! Beagle 2 Lander Found on Mars after 12 Years

They've Found it! Beagle 2 Lander Found on Mars after 12 Years January 16th 2015 Well time makes fools of us all. It didn't return calls, we didn't see it around - it was as if it had disappeared off the face of the planet (well, it had technically...), but the UK led Beagle 2 lander, which

Boyhood

October 9th 2014 by The CAE Guy Usually, when a movie is trying to convey the passage of time, say by a flashback to a character’s childhood, a young actor is used that someone, perhaps the casting director, has determined bears some resemblance to the adult actor. “Boyhood” is the story of

Simulation Driven Design: Just How Far Have We Come?

October 16th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights It's time for a litmus test, isn't it? We've been talking about this issue for well over a decade now. Simulation has traditionally been used for verification and validation right before testing begins. Its a

Shot-Peening Over Coffee and Pie

Shot-Peening Over Coffee and Pie September 20th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager Firstly, I must make an apology for yet another aviation related blog intro. On Saturday I was offered, out of the blue, a ride in an open cockpit Stearman biplane from 1942. It has a 220 hp engine, but

Unwind With A Little Post-Crash Mozart

Unwind With A Little Post-Crash Mozart September 11th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager I had the privilege of attending the NAFEMS World Congress in Salzburg in June. It was a busy time for myself and my e-learning colleague Kamran Fouladi as we gave a series of short classes to act

Clyde Cessna's Famous Photo

Clyde Cessna's Famous Photo August 29th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager Every Saturday when I am in town I work as a part time volunteer at Yank’s Air Museum in Chino, California. If you are in the area please come and check it out, it is rather special. If I am there don’t forget

Interview with Ralph Sundermeier

August 13th 2013 Dr Ralph Sundermeier works in the Technical Design Department of Volkswagen, where he is responsible for the interior calculation within car projects and mainly for the development of calculation methods. Dr Sundermeier was Keynote speaker at NAFEMS recent World Congress in

Continuous Systems Validation- Implications for Software Solutions

July 4th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Continuous systems validation brings a whole new level of complication to simulation. In my first post in this series, we looked at how designs progress in various engineering disciplines. In the second one, we

Continuous Systems Validation- Progressive Design Representations

July 5th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights I now have no doubt left in my mind: system simulation is now all the rage. A few weeks ago, I hopped on the bandwagon to write on the topic. I published a post titled Systems Simulation: Far-off Future or

The Implications of the Cloud for Simulation

June 4th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Is the cloud that big a deal for simulation anymore? I mean, we basically know what it means. Run simulation sin the cloud. Leverage all that compute horsepower up there. Get lots of results way faster. Rinse.

Anecdotal Evidence

May 29th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager My Uncle started as a River Pilot on the English Humber River; a treacherous place with strong currents and constantly changing sandbanks. He then served in the Merchant Navy and was torpedoed twice. Post war he captained a survey and salvage

The “Usual Suspects”

May 20th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager I have been living in the US now for 13 years and occasionally I get a little nostalgic for the TV shows I grew up with in the UK. I found a DVD catalogue which included what in the US we call Cop Shows. The English vernacular I remember is

Systems Simulation: Far-off Future or Feasible Now?

May 8th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Move over multi-physics. There's now a different field that qualifies as the bleeding edge of technology in simulation: system simulation. Many organizations are just starting to broach this field in an effort to

Growing Pains

April 26th 2013 by Kamran Fouladi, President of InfoMec Commercial marketplace for CAE software is undoubtedly similar to any other marketplace where competitors vie for increased market share. Add to this landscape, organizations and individuals who believe in open source environments and the

Pre-CAD Simulation: Where True Engineering Occurs?

April 29th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights This last week, I attended the Council on the Future of Engineering Software (COFES) in Phoenix AZ. It's a great event that brings together many of the leaders of the industry from the ranks of software

A Train of Thought

April 12th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager Earlier this year I travelled from London to Glasgow for a meeting. That gave me the opportunity to ride on a railway train for the first time in Britain since the era of British Rail. My memories are of a system that was starved for funds

The Four ROIs of Simulation

April 5th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post titled The Key to Championing Simulation here on the NAFEMS blog that looked at the best way to move the simulation capabilities of an organization forward. The key, I said,

The Best Simulation Toolbox: Integrated Suite or Granular Apps

March 27th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Everyone likes a good debate, right? Well, as a co-host for the web show Tech4PD , I have to admit that I am a little biased. The idea behind the web show is that Jim Brown, another Industry Analyst, and I

Excuse me, how do I switch it on?

March 19th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager One of the most enjoyable aspects of the training that I carry out is the travelling involved. I have been very fortunate to teach in many countries around the world and to visit many interesting places. Often this involves flying into an

Does Multi-Physics Make Fools of Us All?

March 12th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Quite a long time ago, I remember the first time I visited a hard-core simulation analyst's group. It was at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and I, fresh out of college, was showing them some new simulation

FEA for Managers & Reviewers - Q&A

March 8th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager This week I presented a very short free webinar to a mainly US based audience on the topic ‘FEA for Managers and Reviewers’. This was a collaborative effort between NAFEMS and Desktop Engineering (DE). DE is a US based magazine focussing on

Stick Forward, Full Opposite Rudder

March 7th 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager As you may have guessed from the title, this week’s blog has an aviation theme. Many years ago I used to be a flying instructor and I spent most weekends, when the weather was good, teaching people to fly. I was reminded of all this a few days

Key to Championing Simulation

March 5th 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Quick poll: do you know the most requested presentation topic for NAFEMS events? Anyone. Think quick. I guess the title of this post might be giving it away, but when I talked with Michelle Ringrose about my

Exploding Dough And Fun With Carrots

February 22nd 2013 by Tony Abbey, NAFEMS Training Manager Welcome to my first blog for NAFEMS and an unusual title. It has been a very busy two weeks travelling and teaching the NAFEMS “Introduction to FEA” class in the UK and Holland. As usual each class was very different - depending on the

Hello NAFEMS Folks

February 22nd 2013 by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insights Let me first say welcome the new NAFEMS blog. I'm excited that we'll now have a blog focused on simulation issues. I think many of us will get a lot of value from it. As you might have guessed, I'll be one

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