The Stochastics Working Group (SWG) within NAFEMS is focused on extracting significantly more business value from your investment in engineering analysis and simulation through the effective application of stochastic methods to:

• produce repeatable, realistic and rapid results
• reduce design cycle times through faster iterative analysis and simulation
• reduce the number of physical prototypes required for product design validation
• improve accuracy to drive down product, development, manufacturing, and warranty costs

The SWG brings together a rich blend of leading engineering practitioners, software vendors, and academic researchers from around the world. Recently the SWG published a short document titled “What is Uncertainty Quantification (UQ)?” which can be downloaded for free from the NAFEMS website.

To promote further the adoption of stochastic methods and tools in the engineering simulation area, the SWG is setting out stochastic challenge problems to solve. The request is going to government, industrial, and educational institutions in the hopes of sharing and showcasing different approaches to uncertainty quantification (UQ) and the conclusions drawn from such analysis tasks. These benchmark and challenge problems are also linked to Barna Szabo’s “FEA Puzzler: How confident are you in your predictions?”, as the methods to solve these problems can be applied to quantify the confidence in any of your engineering simulations. NAFEMS World Congress 2019

During the 2019 NAFEMS World Congress there will be a special session led by the SWG to discuss these benchmark and challenge problems. Potential solutions to these problems will be discussed, along with potential pitfalls and advantages of the analytical methods. This session is open to all congress participants to present their solutions to the benchmark and challenge problems.