NAFEMS Composites Simulation Review: Volume 3

Papers selected by the: NAFEMS Composites Working Group

Introduction and Synopsis by: Anthony Floyd

© NAFEMS 2026

This third volume in our omnibus series continues our commitment to curating key articles from NAFEMS publications, conferences, and other events focused on composites simulation. Carefully selected and reviewed by the NAFEMS Composites Working Group (CWG), this collection of publications satisfies a core mandate of creating awareness and education of composites simulation capabilities and challenges.

NAFEMS provides a broad range of information-sharing activities, including conferences, courses, webinars, seminars, workshops, and the Benchmark magazine. Composites simulation is an important part of many of these activities, but navigating the full breadth of relevant content across different events and publications can be difficult. These omnibus volumes serve as comprehensive resources offering NAFEMS members a consolidated collection of significant developments in composites simulation. The first two volumes of NAFEMS Composites Simulation Review compiled articles from 2013 through 2018.

This third volume continues that effort, featuring publications from 2019 through 2023. This period of time was challenging for our community, and indeed the world. The COVID-19 pandemic response affected everything, of course, but research and development often relies on in-person activities and was affected more than some other activities. Conferences and workshops moved to an online model, and as a way to boost engagement, requirements for participation in such events often only required submission of “extended abstracts” rather than full papers.

The CWG identified previously published abstracts, papers, and articles from past NAFEMS events and the Benchmark magazine and selected 58 to be featured in this volume. Full papers have been prioritized over extended abstracts; however some extended abstracts that are particularly relevant and interesting have been included in this volume.

This volume of NAFEMS Composites Simulation Review draws articles from:

• “NAFEMS World Congress 2019”, held on 17-20 June 2019, in Québec City, Québec, Canada
• “2020 Conference on Advancing Analysis & Simulation in Engineering (CAASE20)”, an online virtual conference held on 16-18 June 2020
• “Integration of simulation and testing in product development”, a NAFEMS DACH online seminar held on 16-17 June 2021 (extended abstracts only)
• “NAFEMS World Congress 2021”, held on 25-29 October 2021, online
• “NAFEMS Americas Regional Conference 2022”, held on 21-23 June 2022, in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (extended abstracts only)
• “Robust Design and Design of Experiments (DOE) with Real Defects”, a NAFEMS DACH conference held on 13-14 March 2023, Munich, Germany
• “Materials Modelling for Engineering Simulations – Current Practice and Future Challenges”, a NAFEMS Nordic conference held on 21 - 22 March 2023, Helsinki, Finland (extended abstracts only)
• “NAFEMS World Congress 2023”, held on 15-18 May 2023, in Tampa, Florida, USA
• “Modeling Dynamics, Fatigue and Fracture”, a NAFEMS Nordic conference held on 22-23 November 2023 in Roskilde, Denmark (extended abstracts only)
• Articles in volumes of the Benchmark Magazine from 2018 to 2023

The selected articles address a range of topics in composites simulation including mechanical design and analysis; process simulation and effect of defects; damage, fatigue, and failure; characterization; novel numerical methods and machine learning; optimization; data management; digital twins; and other subject areas. While many of these articles focus on aerospace or automotive applications, they offer valuable insights for scientists and engineers working with composites in any sector.