Focus on: Optimisation

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 a small selection of this content for you below, to help you on your journey towards improving your skills and knowledge, and hopefully inspire you to learn more about the topic.

Many of the resources below are available as part of NAFEMS Membership, with an e-library subscription, and to buy direct from our website.

We hope you find this brief update useful. If you have any comments, or thoughts on future areas that you'd like to see us focus on in the future, please get in touch at focus@nafems.org

The Road to Successful Optimisation

The July 2017 issue of Benchmark is dedicated to optimisation, covering topics as diverse as Topology and Shape Optimization, Interactive Multiobjective Optimization, High-Value Manufacturing, Robust Design Optimization of Opto-Thermo-Mechanical Systems, and much more.

NAFEMS Members will be receiving their printed copy shortly, and can also download the PDF from our website. Subscribers will receive their magazine directly.

Buy this issue

Optimisation Special Interest Group

The NAFEMS Optimisation Working Group has formed a Special Interest Group (SIG) in order to help disseminate best practice and encourage the adoption of optimisation methods and technology.

To participate in the Optimisation SIG you do not have to be an expert in this technical area. The Optimisation SIG is for NAFEMS members who are interested in expanding their capabilities in the optimisation technical area.

Next meeting:

The Impact of Uncertainty Quantification in Optimization: Towards Robust Design Optimization
Professor Charles Hirsch & Dr Dirk Wunsch, NUMECA International

The presentation "The impact of Uncertainty Quantification in Optimization: Towards Robust Design Optimization" describes the role of Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) and Robust Design Optimization (RDO) in engineering practice. The challenges in building an industry-ready tool chain for UQ and RDO will be described and it will be shown how the problem was addressed by the authors. The presentation includes applications of simultaneous operational and geometrical, as well as manufacturing, uncertainties in turbo-machinery design. Robust design optimizations are compared with deterministic design optimizations on several industrial examples, from turbo-machinery to marine applications, highlighting the importance of robust formulation of the optimization problem. In particular, it will be shown that the designs resulting from deterministic and robust design optimization can vary significantly and that robust design optimization leads indeed to more robust designs in terms of performance variability.

See all the Optimization Working Group Meetings

Structural Optimization in FEA

E-learning Course

The objective of this well-established e-learning course, tutored by Tony Abbey, is to show you a broad overview of the range of Finite Element Analysis-based tools available and what the methods and specializations of each encompass. Plentiful hints and tips will demonstrate powerful ways to use these methods. The goal is to achieve meaningful structural optimization in support of the most effective products.

Register here