NAFEMS is the only worldwide independent association dedicated to engineering modelling, analysis & simulation.
It has been our mission since 1983 to facilitate and promote the safe and efficient use of engineering simulation and analysis.
We're non-profit. We're independent. We're the voice of the CAE community.
Membership has many advantages
The largest independent, international conference dedicated exclusively to engineering simulation.
Attendees discovered new technologies & innovative techniques, whilst networking with end-users, software vendors, consultants and academics, in this worldwide celebration of simulation.
Traditional methods of training are changing. NAFEMS is stepping up to the challenge by providing you with a range of training options, all available remotely, all available from home, and all keeping to the same, internationally renowned, independent standards.
NAFEMS provides the engineering analysis community with as many as fifty seminars, conferences, workshops and open forums throughout the world each year. As the only truly independent organisation dedicated to engineering analysis and simulation NAFEMS' events are widely held to encompass the broadest and most accurate view of the community available.
This is your community. Now more than ever, we're working harder to deliver more opportunities for you to stay connected during these challenging times.
Our webinar programme has been stepped up, we're introducing new more interactive online sessions, and our working groups are opening up some of their meetings to the wider community as we come together as one.
You can also continue to submit articles for BENCHMARK Magazine, as well as taking a look at our invitations to tender for new books and documents for the analysis community.
Do you have an idea you want to share? Leave us some feedback.
The NAFEMS Resource Centre provides a gateway to all of the technical material produced by NAFEMS. It enables access to our publications, magazine articles, webinars, papers and presentations.
Relevant material can be found by searching by keyword, filtering by multilevel technical categories or filtering by author, organisation, or type of resource.
There are currently over 8,000 resources in the centre with this number growing weekly.
As an organisation dedicated to promoting the best use of simulation and analysis and with our wealth of experience within the analysis and simulation industry, there is no better place to further your professional development with our quality and worthwhile training to reach your goals.
Keep track of your development using the PSE Competency Tracker, and get PSE Certified to demonstrate your skills to current and future employers.
We are a not-for-profit organisation which was established in 1983.
Our principal aims are to:
Improve the professional status of all persons engaged in the use of engineering simulation
Establish best practice in engineering simulation
Provide a focal point for the dissemination and exchange of information and knowledge relating to engineering simulation
Promote collaboration and communication
Act as an advocate for the deployment of simulation
Continuously improve the education and training in the use of simulation techniques
Be recognised as a valued independent authority that operates with neutrality and integrity
We focus on the practical application of numerical engineering simulation techniques such the Finite Element Method for Structural Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, and Multibody Simulation. In addition to end users from all industry sectors, our stakeholders include technology providers, researchers and academics.New Column
The NAFEMS blog features industry news, a raft of technical topics, thought leadership, and all the latest from the analysis community.
You can subscribe to weekly updates here. If you have any feedback or suggestions, or you want to contribute, please contact us at marketing@nafems.org
Our friend and colleague, Dr Jim Wood, passed away peacefully on Monday, 22 nd September 2025. Jim was with NAFEMS from the start. He was ‘in the room’ for the original meetings that led to our formation and was with us every step of the way in the 40 years since. If NAFEMS has a beating heart, Jim would have embodied it. His passion for engineering, his love of shipbuilding, Glasgow, and
5-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - December 3rd 2024 We all do it; every human society has its own storytelling tradition. Why does storytelling matter, and what place do stories have in the business of engineering? Let your work speak for itself, right? But we know that doesn’t really work. That’s why marketing departments and agencies exist, because without those storytellers, brilliant
When, How, How Much, and If 4-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - July 31st 2024 Many great innovations emerge from wars and other existential threats, why exactly that is is complicated, but perhaps at a simplified level, it’s something to do with the fact that when it comes to eliminating real threat to life, there is no cost too great. Computer simulation is one such innovation that found in
How Prepared is our Community? 1-minute read March 8th 2024 NAFEMS is investigating how ready the engineering simulation community is to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into its daily workflows. By completing this survey on your organisation's readiness, you will contribute to vital research that will give everyone involved in engineering simulation real insight
Modelling and Simulation of Cyber-physical Systems 5-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - February 22nd 2024 In 2006 Dr Helen Gill, then program manager of the United States National Science Foundation (USNSF) coined the term Cyber-physical Systems . Before that, we had Cybernetics, a term invented by mathematician Norbert Wiener. And before that we had the Greek word kybernan; to steer. So
1-minute read NAFEMS Americas - November 28th 2023 Do you work at a small or medium-sized business? Is it your responsibility to manage your company’s investment and use of engineering analysis & simulation? Are you looking for an independent authority providing best practices in the development of reliable products and innovative solutions? Well, NAFEMS has you covered. The following
5-minute read David Quinn & Sinothile Baloyi - September 15th 2023 Remedial work being carried out at Mayflower Primary School in Leicester, which has been affected with sub standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). Picture date: Monday September 4, 2023. Source: Alamy / PA Like all materials, RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) has a finite operating life.
5-minute read Patrick Morelle - September 14th 2023 Modeling a pair of gears does not seem too complicated a task. Coupling two angles of rotations, describing the geometry of the gears, really, nothing too complicated. It could all be described as a routine job for any and every MBD software in the world. Now, let us ask ourselves: What could be the role of a “simple” MBD model of a
A Discussion with the NAFEMS SGMWG 14-minute read NAFEMS SGMWG - August 17th 2023 As part of an ongoing series, the NAFEMS Simulation Governance & Management Working Group present a discussion on Model Predictive Capability. As well as reading the conversation here, you can watch the video on YouTube. The discussion was hosted by Gregory Westwater (GW, Emerson Automation Solutions) and
6-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - June 30th 2023 Your favourite packaged cookie. What is it, actually? Let’s just focus on the basic ingredients of the kind of cookie you might bake yourself. So, probably wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, maybe chocolate, butter, and flavourings. Now let’s think about the physical properties of each ingredient, the things that your cookie is before it’s a
6-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - April 21st 2023 In 1765 James Watt improved Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine, to such an extent that he often gets incorrectly credited with inventing the whole thing himself. How did he do this? Perhaps it was simply serendipity, or could his access at a young age to his father’s shipbuilding workshops - all those hours spent building models of cranes, barrel
A Discussion with the NAFEMS SGMWG 12-minute read NAFEMS SGMWG - March 22nd 2023 As part of an ongoing series, the NAFEMS Simulation Governance & Management Working Group present a discussion about the difference between model calibration and model validation. As well as reading the conversation here, you can watch the video on YouTube. The discussion was hosted by Gregory Westwater (GW,
6-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - February 28th 2023 Remember when you were a child and built entire worlds out of just your imagination and some LEGO® bricks, sticks, rocks, or whatever you could lay your hands on? You knew you were building something , but often, at the very beginning, you didn’t know exactly how it was going to turn out. Sure, LEGO bricks often come with instructions for
2-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - January 12th 2023 Is there a shared, aligned goal across your whole organisation when it comes to modelling and simulation? In a recent webinar, Andy Richardson, a chartered engineer with 30 years’ experience and a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers(IMechE), looked at this and other questions that leadership and management should be asking
4-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - November 10th 2022 In August 2021 Wired magazine published an article about a study that discovered that a neural network trained to read x-ray scans was also predicting subject patients’ racial identity, a non-biological category. The most interesting —and concerning— thing about this discovery was that no one could explain why the algorithms were able to
5-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - October 20th 2022 The automotive and aerospace industries are undergoing huge changes brought on by the urgent demand for action towards reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. For the automotive industry in particular, there is an additional pressure to evolve the driver’s role, to liberate them from the reins, as it were. Not only will this allow the driver
2-minute read NAFEMS - September 1st 2022 The NAFEMS World Congress 2023 will take place in Tampa, Florida, USA, in May 2023 (15th-18th, to be exact). We're gearing up to make this Congress the most memorable yet, as we finally bring the global engineering simulation community back together. And we want you to be part of it. You can submit a 300-600 word abstract for the Congress by
You've got to start now: How simulation is changing and what you need to do to keep up 5-minute read Monica Schnitger - August 29th 2022 In the webinar ‘The Changing World of Simulation’ Monica Schnitger, founder, president, and principal analyst at Schnitger Corporation gives us the lay of the land in terms of where we are in the world of simulation and where it looks like we’re headed.
The Big NAFEMS Book Sales has now finished. For a limited time, we've slashed prices on a number of our best-selling printed publications, as well as discounting shipping costs. There are a whole host of books on offer at exclusive prices to both members and non-members, but orders need to be placed and paid for no later than midnight on September 9th 2022 to lock-in these exclusive discounts.
What does it mean to you? 1-minute read NAFEMS Computational Structural Mechanics Working Group - August 8th 2022 NAFEMS' Computational Structural Mechanics Working Group (CSMWG) are excited to see “Modelling Structural Failure” as one of the topics being covered at the NAFEMS World Congress 2023 , as it’s one of the main areas of interest for the group. But the more we thought about it,
Are You Ready for the Revolution? 5-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - July 19th 2022 If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past two years it’s that even though we can never fully predict the future, we must plan for it anyway. It was this sort of thinking that led the communities at Revolution in Simulation and NAFEMS to come together for a webinar series exploring how the latest
7-minute read NAFEMS Stochastics Working Group - June 16th 2022 The NAFEMS Stochastics Working Group (SWG) has developed a guide entitled "What is Uncertainty Quantification (UQ)?" [1] describing the basic steps and definitions of Uncertainty Quantification, it has also hosted several discussions and webinars around the topic. Recently, the group updated the definitions of the Probabilistic
A Discussion with the NAFEMS SGMWG 4-minute read NAFEMS SGMWG - May 4th 2022 In the next part of this series, the NAFEMS Simulation Governance & Management Working Group discussed how much verification you need to do, and when to do it. As well as reading the conversation here, you can watch the video on YouTube. The discussion features William Oberkampf (WO) & Gregory Westwater (GW),
Your Questions, Answered. 2-minute read April 28th 2022 NAFEMS Americas recently presented a webinar with Linda Knudsen from Syncroness on the importance of simulation result credibility, titled ‘Define and Deliver Credible Results.’ We summarised some of the key points in this article, and you can view the full webinar in our resource centre. Here are some of the questions (with the
A Discussion with the NAFEMS SGMWG 9-minute read NAFEMS SGMWG - April 7th 2022 In the next part of this series, the NAFEMS Simulation Governance & Management Working Group hosted a discussion looking at code verification v solution verification. As well as reading the conversation here, you can watch the video on YouTube. The discussion features William Oberkampf (WO) & Gregory Westwater
(Or How to Get the Most from Verification and Validation…) 5-minute read Sinothile Baloyi - March 31st 2022 “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” - Thomas Edison Sure, and well done for persisting Edison, but how much did that cost in time and materials? Yikes! Luckily, we have come a long way since, and nowadays we can simulate and perform those 10,000
6-minute read David Quinn - February 22nd 2022 Mark Palmer is a distinguished scientist in the Core Technologies Group within corporate strategic scientific operations at Medtronic, plc. There he leads a team of advanced modeling and simulation consultants, manages external collaborations, and leads the strategy and platform technologies for realistic human simulation. He's active on
Judit Oldal, NAFEMS - March 9th 2022 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Dubravka Mijuca. Tell us briefly about yourself I am a university professor, scientific researcher, and industrial project leader who provides numerical simulation services to a capital engineering project in Serbia and abroad. Regarding my
Judith Oldal, NAFEMS - February 11th 2022 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Attila Papp. Tell us briefly about yourself I graduated in the field of electrical engineering and computer science and for more than 15 years I have been involved in the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and simulation business as sales
8-minute read Ian Symington, NAFEMS - January 26th 2022 While there is no doubt that we all missed meeting up in person at the 2021 NAFEMS World congress, one of the big positives of a virtual event is that we have hundreds and hundreds of hours of content available on demand. I know you are all busy people and I have picked out some of the event highlights. If you find the selected
Introducing the 12 Resources of Christmas! 2-minute read The NAFEMS Team - December 23rd 2021 If you're looking for some festive simulation entertainment (aren't we all!) , we've selected 12 pieces of exclusive content for you to get stuck in to. There are thousands of resources available on our resource centre , with over 1,000 added in the past 12 months alone. We've selected the pick
Judith Oldal, NAFEMS - November 29th 2021 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Bogdan-Emilian Badescu. Tell us briefly about yourself I currently hold the position of Integrated CAE&PLM Senior Manager at Renault Technologie Roumanie, a position best described as Head of Digital in Engineering.Renault Technologie
Judith Oldal, NAFEMS - October 20th 2021 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Franjo Juretic. Tell us briefly about yourself After getting my PhD at Imperial College in London I worked for AVL-AST in their Zagreb office for 8 years as , where I was a Team Leader for pre-processing and mesh generation. At the same
2-minute read The NWC21 Team - October 13th 2021 NWC21 is almost here and there is still time to register for this landmark event in the simulation and analysis community. For the first time, the Congress is genuinely globally accessible no matter where you are located. Now it's time to act, and you may be asking "why should I register?" Here's why: 1. This is the only independent global
11-minute read David Quinn - September 30th 2021 Gernot Boiger is a professor of Modeling Multiphysics Applications and head of Multiphysics Modeling and Imaging at Zurich University of Applied Sciences -ZHAW. He teaches and develops Multiphysics simulations for applied R&D and leads a team of around 20 researchers. He's also European vice president of the International Society of
5-minute read David Quinn - September 20th 2021 What lessons can we learn from the past 20 years of SPDM? How do you get started with an SDM system if you're not on board already? What about the next 20 years of SPDM? I caught up with Mark Norris, of the SDM Consultancy, to talk about these and other topics, as well as his upcoming keynote presentation at the NAFEMS International SPDM
Judith Oldal, NAFEMS - September 20th 2021 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Marek Linhart. Tell us briefly about yourself I'm Head of R&D at SVS FEM s.r.o. (ANSYS provider for Czech and Slovak Rep.). I'm responsible for leading and providing development, research and code customization in multi physical tasks
Talking Hypercar Simulation with Ivan Krajinović of Rimac Automobili 5-minute read David Quinn - September 9th 2021 Dr. Ivan Krajinović is Simulations Manager at Rimac, the electric hypercar manufacturer based in Croatia. He leads the Simulation department, which is responsible for structural, electrical and thermal simulations of different components of the electric powertrain, working
7-minute read NAFEMS SGMWG - August 26th 2021 In the first of a series, the NAFEMS Simulation Governance & Management Working Group hosted a discussion introducing the concept of Verification and Validation. As well as reading the conversation here, you can watch the video on YouTube, as well as listen to the audio on the NAFEMS Podcast. The discussion was hosted by Chris Rogers, Chair of
Judith Oldal, NAFEMS - August 18th 2021 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Petr Konas. Tell us briefly about yourself I'm Head of R&D at SVS FEM s.r.o. (ANSYS provider for Czech and Slovak Rep.). I'm responsible for leading and providing development, research and code customization in multi physical tasks for
6-minute read Natasha Bougourd, SMD - August 17th 2021 Currently, women represent only eight percent of employees in engineering in the UK. This is in stark contrast to the UK workforce as a whole, of which women make up 47%. For many women, entering a sector that’s perceived as a “boy’s club” isn’t always appealing. If a sector looks unwelcoming to women from the outside, it’s unlikely to
Judit Oldal, NAFEMS - August 6th 2021 As part of our series on the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members, we would like to introduce you to Kimon Afsaridis. Tell us briefly about yourself I am the Vice President of Altair’s Indirect Business for the EMEA region. For more than 10 years I have been active in the simulation industry from different positions, with a focus on building
8-minute read Keith Hanna, Hexagon | MSC Software - July 30th 2021 Nearly 30 years ago some 1,700 scientists signed a slim document entitled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” with the opening sentence including this eye-catching statement: “Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course...”. Twenty-five years later a second document was released, this time signed by over
Judit Oldal, NAFEMS - July 27th 2021 We are pleased to bring you a series of posts about the NAFEMS Eastern Europe Steering Committee members so you can learn more about them. First up is Ms. Ioana Tircomnicu-Unga. Tell us briefly about yourself Passionate about how digital technologies can help companies in almost every industry improve products and efficiency, I work closely with
Olivia Bugaj, NAFEMS - July 8th 2021 Why is Diversity and Inclusion important to us? At a personal level At NAFEMS, we are fully committed to building an increasingly diverse community and we want everyone to be treated fairly and with respect. By valuing individuality and identity, we develop a sense of belonging and give engineering the best chance of becoming more ethical and more
UK Student Award Winner In this series, we've asked some of the winners from the 2020 NAFEMS Student Awards to give us their thoughts on what winning the award means to them, and what they are looking forward to as they launch their careers in engineering analysis and simulation I really enjoyed my Medical Engineering degree and my time at university. I chose to study Medical Engineering
Americas Student Award In this series, we've asked some of the winners from the 2020 NAFEMS Student Awards to give us their thoughts on what winning the award means to them, and what they are looking forward to as they launch their careers in engineering analysis and simulation I was so ecstatic when I got the news I won. I was on my way home from work when I received congratulatory emails
DACH Student Award Winner In this series, we've asked some of the winners from the 2020 NAFEMS Student Awards to give us their thoughts on what winning the award means to them, and what they are looking forward to as they launch their careers in engineering analysis and simulation Numerical simulation is for me not just an engineering tool to develop new products, combine multiple physics,
UK Student Winner 2nd Prize winner In this series, we've asked some of the winners from the 2020 NAFEMS Student Awards to give us their thoughts on what winning the award means to them, and what they are looking forward to as they launch their careers in engineering analysis and simulation How winning has made me feel Winning second prize in the ‘Simulation Techniques - Outstanding Project
We have had eight diversity and inclusion meetings so far, and we hope you will be attending the next one on March 19th. These open-to-all meetings are a way for us to listen to our community and receive feedback. The discussions also provide an opportunity to gather tips and recommendations from members who are already on this journey and showing us the path to follow. At the last meeting we
According to Dr Nelson Ogunshakin OBE, Chair of the Diversity Leadership Group subgroup of the Royal Academy of Engineering: ‘creating inclusive cultures across engineering companies is critical in not only engaging, attracting and retaining engineers of all ages, but also as regards driving innovation and creativity’ [1] If you do not intentionally include, you unintentionally exclude.
The origins and legacy of the renowned structural analysis code and early pioneer of simulation-driven design. from the analysis origins series In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the engineering research community began to buzz about a new concept called topology optimization. The homogenization method for topology and shape optimization was first introduced by Martin Bendsoe and Noburo
from the analysis origins series This article chronicles the origins of Fluent, a pioneering Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code in the 1980s that became the dominant market leader by the late 90s and is today part of ANSYS Inc., one of the leading simulation software providers for engineering. “CHAM showed the world that fluid dynamics problems could be solved on a computer. Fluent, on
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 within NAFEMS around these issues, and we've collected some of the resulting information here. Many
from the analysis origins series by Dennis Nagy Principal, BeyondCAE Birth, Growth, Success, Stagnation, and Re-Birth MSC’s 55-year history has been fascinating, exciting, and disappointing, all at the same time. This article attempts to highlight all those facets from the personal viewpoint of someone who was a part of it for 12 years (1985-97) and has followed MSC’s course closely since
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 are available free for you to download, with others accessible exclusively to NAFEMS Members ,
Modelling Explosions and Combustion and the Impact of Piper Alpha from the analysis origins series Introduction by Steve Howell The catastrophic loss of the Piper Alpha platform claimed the lives of 167 people. On 6 July 1988, a small explosion caused secondary damage that resulted in a second larger explosion and then a sustained major fire. With a total insured loss of £1.7 billion (US$3.4
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 solutions to enable users to manage structures of simulation and process data across the complete product
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 and an American who grew up in Ecuador met in Providence, Rhode Island—sounds like a humorous opening line, but
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 limit the ability to capture usefully realistic results. Over the past few years, NAFEMS has produced
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, with others accessible exclusively to NAFEMS Members , e-library subscribers , or to buy directly
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 cases, the properties of the raw material in order to make the desired item. Successful processes are
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 and simulation, producing books, papers, events and training courses on the subject. We've collated
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, established as a way to combat the seeming unfair business practices of for-profit power generation that that favored
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 background information must be included with CFD results reports. The test equivalent of this is to include the specs of
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 Eddie Van Halen and he was advocating for Jimi Hendrix. For a little background, my classmate was a guy that seemed,
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 …), and playing pickup Ultimate[1]. Since I managed to not finish all (or, technically, any…) of the woodworking/home
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 company as well. Our department certainly has an overall CFD strategy, but how that CFD strategy relates to the testing strategy
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 up , Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in Gaydon, where Tony taught the final Introduction to FEA for the 2014/15 intake. This is a
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 teenagers, this happens relatively often as their “lens” on the world is decidedly different that most everyone else’s
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 touched down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003 and hadn't been seen or heard form since, has been found by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). boo! you found me! (images courtesy of
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 growing up as seen through the eyes of a child and breaks that mold by shooting over a 12 year period with the same cast.
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 great way to avoid the effort of building prototypes that, according to simulation predictions, will fail. There's
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 is quite a heavy plane at just over 2 tons fully loaded. It is also a tail dragger – a small wheel at the rear means it sits, taxies and lands in a nose up attitude.
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 as tasters for the full courses run throughout the year. It was very pleasant to meet NAFEMS members who had already attended the e-learning courses. Teaching the classes
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 to say hello. One of the museum aircraft has always intrigued me because of the photo blow-up set on an easel next to it. The aircraft is a Cessna A model, the
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 Salzburg, Austria . His presentation entitled ' Frontloading by calculation - Evolution or Revolution? ' shared
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 looked at how cross-disciplinary simulations are actually assembled out of these different designs. But
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 Feasible Now? here at the NAFEMs blog. That post focused on how to build a simulation model that incorporates various
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. Wash. Repeat. Right? Well, that's where I disagree. Bigger changes for simulation in the cloud are hidden just below
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 ship for the Royal Air Force. This included marking out and monitoring offshore target ranges. A grim task was salvaging
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 Police Dramas. I ordered some old favourites such as “The Sweeney”, “The Professionals” and even an extraordinarily dated “Dixon
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 better understand how systems perform holistically. But what is it? Is it really feasible for practical use today?
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 landscape becomes even more competitive for CAE software companies. This paradigm certainly holds true for CFD software
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 providers, journalists, industry analysts and manufacturers. We get together a debate a lot of edge topics relevant to the
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 with much neglect and decay. Returning by rail to my hometown on one trip was a shock. The elegant Victorian station had been
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, was to befriend the bean counter. The idea is to get their help building out an ROI case that is credible and
by Chad Jackson, President and Principal Analyst of Lifecycle Insight 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 debate various topics about technology that enables product development. Viewer's votes determine who wins. The loser has
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 airport, picking up a rental car and then heading off to my hotel on the first night. One of the great blessings has been the
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 technology. There were lots of questions and conversations that day. But first and foremost in my memory, I remember
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 CAD, CAM and CAE and I write a monthly article for them. The webinar was based on the March 2013 article of the same name.We had
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 ago when browsing through an aviation magazine. The instructing scene has changed dramatically since I flew, with many new
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 presentation for NAFEMS North American Conference 2012, she was very clear: addressing the business side of simulation
by Tony Abbey, FE Training 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 background of the client company and the individuals attending. Both classes were fun, I always enjoy meeting fellow engineers and
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 of the contributors here. So I thought it would only be appropriate to give you some idea of what to expect from my
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