BENCHMARK July 2021

Setting the Analysis Agenda

In the BENCHMARK July 2021 Issue, you will find out about:

• Assessing Dominant Environmental Considerations in Manufacturing
• Planning for Simulation Governance and Management - Ensuring Simulation is an Asset, not a Liability
• The Evolution of Additive Manufacturing Simulation - From Deformation Predictions to Multiscale and Multiphysics Simulation
• NAFEMS World Congress 2021
• Surrogate Model Based Safety Performance Assessment of Integrated Vehicle Safety Systems - Connecting and Accelerating Simulation Domains
• Computing Platforms for Engineering Simulation - 2015 vs 2020
• Smart Material Database Enrichment Using a Mixed Approach - Combining Data Science with Experimental Data and Virtual Testing
• AI, Data Driven Models & Machine Learning - How Will Advanced Technologies Shape Future Simulation Processes?
• Generative Design Powered by Additive Manufacturing and Artificial Intelligence

BENCHED

View From Your Editorial Team

One of the most challenging things we do at NAFEMS is decide what the organisation should focus on next. It’s also one of the most exciting. As you can imagine, there are several ways of doing this. We can painstakingly survey the technology landscape, look at trends and what the industry needs, then report on what that tells us. We can get a group of people together in a room (ah, back in the day…) or on a video call, toss ideas around, and come up with a list that we think captures what’s going on. We can launch a bunch of topics towards the community, ask them what they think, and look at those results. Being NAFEMS, we never take the easy option, so we did them all, wrapped some fancy words around it, and called it our “Analysis Agenda”. Simple.

What we got was a clear sense that we are on the same page as our community. I guess that’s primarily because, outside of us staffers and contractors that do the donkey work, NAFEMS is the community. I won’t bore you with the numbers. Still, tens of thousands of engineers worldwide are covered by a NAFEMS membership. Through this process we started to think that not only can we find out what the community wants, but we can also be a focal point in driving that forward.

And that focus will culminate this October at the 2021 NAFEMS World Congress. It’s been a long journey over the past 18 months towards having the confidence to say that without a little bit of apprehension. But due to the dedication and hard work of our Congress Team and all our other staff, the buy-in and engagement from you, our community, and the rock-solid support of our sponsors, this is going to be another extraordinary Congress. We’ve listened to you and made sure we’re focussing on the topics you’ve told us are most important, as well as the niche areas as usual (don’t worry!). We believe that this will be one of our best events yet.

And so, to benchmark. In the past few issues, we’ve asked what’s next for simulation, as well as taking some deep dives into the very analysis agenda topics I’ve been talking about. For this issue, and the next, we’re serving up a selection of articles covering different aspects of that agenda to give you a flavour of some of the Congress content. We’ve asked some of the speakers to put together some articles based on what they’ll be talking about in October, and I think it all makes for a really interesting read. For each one, you can find out more by registering to attend NWC21, where you’ll have access to their presentations, as well as have the opportunity to put them on the spot if you want! We’ll be looking at other Analysis Agenda topics in the October issue.

We’ll also be examining the trends that we’ve seen over the past couple of years since we launched the initiative and discussing some of the key findings from the process.

I hope you enjoy the magazine. By the time you read this, football will either have come home, o torna acasa per davvero.

Speriamo che, dal mio punto di vista qui a Glasgow, sarà in un posto migliori.

David Quinn - Editor

Thanks to Stephane and Steve Fionda for their help with the Italian translation.

If you have feedback or would like to see your article featured in benchmark contact benchmark@nafems.org