NAFEMS Americas Conference 2014 Preview

NAFEMS Americas is holding its annual conference in Colorado Springs, CO from May 28 to 30 this year. This year’s theme is “Driving Product Development with Collaboration, Simulation, and Integration.”

The various presentations and workshops examine questions about what future advances are being made in engineering analysis and simulation, how designers and engineers can realize its full potential and what enablers will lead to successful new developments in the coming decade.

This vendor-free conference offers attendees over 80 presentations focused on simulation, analysis, engineering and CAE-related technologies. In addition to attending talks, panels and presentations, attendees can participate in daily networking sessions with industry leaders.

All presentations are grouped into smaller topics, including exploiting cloud computing, high-performance computing, composites, fatigue, new methods, optimization and simulation process and data management. These topics include from two to five individual lectures.

Some topics will be discussed throughout multiple days of the conference, for example, New Methods, which is comprised of these presentations, according to the abstracts:

• Technologies for the Construction of Parallel Simulation Workflows S. Tendulkar, M. Beall, Simmetrix Inc.; C. Smith, M. Shephard, RPI

  In this presentation, the speakers will cover parallel mesh generation and anisotropic mesh adaptation and how these components are changing within the parallel simulation workflow. Audience members can also hear about how parallel mesh infrastructure is needed to support this simulation in CAD models and unstructured mesh analysis.

• A Challenge to the NAFEMS Software Users Community: What is the Next Advance Forthcoming in Engineering? F.W. Palmieri, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems

  While examining the previous FEA methods, standards and implementation, Palmieri wonders what the final development stage is in developing solutions for common problems associated with FEA analysis.

• The Paradigm Shift Toward Predictive CFD! R. Kaczmarek, Convergent Science Inc.

  Kaczmarek looks at answering the question “How do we break free from being at the mercy of the mesh?” The answer to this question can include a variety of answers, from Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics to “automated meshing.” Now, there’s Adaptive Mesh Refinement, where a mesh can be created from flow feedback. Tentative themes of this talk include innovations in simulation technology, engineering simulation processes and futuristic considerations.

The conference’s keynote speaker is Dr. Takeshi Abe, of Ford Motor Company. His presentation, titled “The latest CAE/Hybrid Engineering utilization for Ford Advanced Powertrain NVH Development,” discusses how Ford has switched from Single Discipline based component modeling to a System Engineering Multi-Discipline simulation approach. He will also cover the application of new technologies, including hardware-in-the-loop, and multiphysics applications for mechanical, airflow and electric drive simulation.

As part of their registration, participants can also attend one or more NAFEMS short training courses. Some course topics include Basic Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Optimization in FEA, Non-Linear Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Structural Designers and Analysts.

In addition to presentations, the conference features a panel titled “Industry Experts Take On Hottest Topics,” moderated by David Prawel of Longview Advisors Inc. In this 40-minute session, experts from Lifecycle Insights, MCAD Cafe, CIMdata, Cyon Research and Taxal Ltd. will discuss the industry’s hottest topics. Attendees can learn more about cloud computing, digital product definition, integrated CAD/PDM cloud solutions and more.

The NAFEMS Americas Conference is also co-located with the 10th 3D Collaboration & Interoperability Congress (CIC).

Also vendor-free, the congress is focused on improving and promoting collaboration and interoperability within product development, manufacturing and business communications.

ShopBot Tools Founder and CEO Ted Hall will keynote the conference with his presentation on “Will the Next Industrial Revolution be about Digital Blacksmiths?” Hall examines how digital fabrication technologies could possibly empower a return to small-shop manufacturing.

To further view the agenda and abstracts, visit NAFEMS and 3DCIC.

For registration information, visit the NAFEMS Americas Conference website.