From all of us at ESRD, we wish you a very happy holiday season! We truly feel that each and every one of our users are part of the ESRD family and we are incredibly grateful to get to work with all of you. We hope that you enjoy your year-end celebrations, quality time with friends and family, and wrap up 2023 with a big automesh-patterned bow 😉

There is much we are thankful for as we approach the end of the year. Our ESRD team has grown, we have had the opportunity to engage with our FEA community in new and important ways, and we’ve continued to strengthen our relationships with many of our beloved StressCheck users through conference visits and in-person trainings. We’d like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the reasons we’re looking back fondly on 2023…

ESRD’s New Account Manager

Patrick Goulding joined ESRD back in June as our new Account Manager. Many of you have had the chance to meet or speak with him this year, but if you have not yet been introduced feel free to reach out and say hi anytime, he would be thrilled to hear from you!

Patrick comes to us with several years of technical experience in the CAE industry, primarily with a background in multibody dynamics and mechatronics, and received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois, Chicago. Patrick works remotely from his home office in Long Beach, CA, where he spends much of his time playing beach volleyball and repairing vintage turntables. If you’re looking for a turntable recommendation for your new stereo setup, he’s your guy.

Before Patrick was an engineer he devoted his career to the arts, co-founding a theatre company in Chicago and managing the day-to-day activities of a startup non-profit. From this experience, he learned the tremendous value of genuine and lasting business relationships. Patrick sees his role at ESRD as an opportunity to partner with talented engineers like yourself, help you to achieve your goals, and further his respect and admiration for those in the aerospace community.

• LinkedIn

Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn.

Blog Series Authored by ESRD Co-founder, Dr. Barna Szabó

Starting in October, Dr. Barna Szabó has authored weekly blog articles published to our ESRD Blog. These concise discussions address hot topics in engineering such as XAI, the misconceptions between Finite Element Modelling and Finite Element Analysis, and the importance of Simulation Governance for today’s engineering managers. We think that not only are these critical topics for our ESRD community to engage in, but that they are compelling insights into the fundamental values our software is built upon.

If you have not yet taken a look, we invite you to browse the currently published articles, choose your topic of interest, and share the discussion with others on your team. Dr. Szabó’s invites feedback and discussion, so feel free to reach out to us and to him with your thoughts and insights!

ASIP Conference 2023

We had a fantastic time attending the ASIP Conference this year and getting the chance to spend time with so many from our ESRD community! We look forward to it every year, because we get to catch up with so many of you and attend wonderful presentations demonstrating StressCheck in the ASIP industry.

Take a look at our recap of the 2023 ASIP Conference in Denver and we look forward to seeing many of you in Austin next year!

Looking Forward to 2024!

We’ve been working VERY hard on what we consider the most significant release of StressCheck in years, StressCheck v12.0! Our developers are in the very final stages of testing, making sure we deliver the highest quality analysis tool for you to use in 2024.

While we wait patiently for its debut, we want to make sure each of you know what to expect with the new functionalities, GUI updates, and overall improvements. Please schedule your demo of StressCheck v12.0 using the form below:

Wishing good tidings to you and your family!

At this year’s ASIP 2023 Conference in Denver, CO, ESRD provided a 2-hour training course titled “Enhancements in StressCheck v12.0 for DaDT Analysis of 3D Fastened Connections”, presented a technical paper titled “Experimental Validation of DTA Modeling of Bonded Wing Skin Repairs“, and passed out 3D printed F-35 and C-130 models at our booth inside the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Conference Center. The models were a big hit — look out for some new aircraft next year!

Conference Snapshot

ESRD’s Brent Lancaster, Patrick Goulding, and Brian Lockwood spent the week chatting with ASIP attendees and meeting many enthusiastic StressCheck users. The ASIP Conference has become an exciting platform for demonstrating many strong use cases of StressCheck spanning the ASIP community, with around a dozen technical presentations utilizing our technology for their DaDT analyses. We are honored to be such a prominent part of this event and to have so many talented and loyal users in this industry.

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all those who attended Brent’s training, Brian’s technical paper presentation, and/or stopped by our booth to say hello to us. In addition, this was Patrick’s first ASIP Conference and he was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet you all. We really enjoy getting the chance to see you each year and we’re already looking forward to attending ASIP 2024 in Austin, TX.

ASIP 2023 Training Materials Available

On Monday, November 27th, Brent had the pleasure of providing a training course to a large group of attentive ASIP engineers on Enhancements in StressCheck v12.0 for DaDT Analysis of 3D Fastened Connections. We were thrilled with the level of interest and engagement, and the opportunity to present the latest in StressCheck. Thanks to those who attended the training course in person (as well as virtually)!

If you are interested in this topic, you can download Brent’s training presentation (in PowerPoint show or PDF format) and watch the video demo via the below link (note: you must be a registered user to view the training materials):

We are looking forward to receiving your feedback on the training course presentation, as well as your ideas for ASIP 2024 training course topics.

ASIP 2023 Technical Paper Presentation Available

On Thursday, November 30th, Brian had the honor of presenting his technical paper “Experimental Validation of DTA Modeling of Bonded Wing Skin Repairs” to a strong audience of engaged ASIP attendees. The paper was a collaboration between ESRD, AP/ES (Dr. Scott Prost-Domasky) and USAF AFMC WRALC/ENC (Laura Pawlikowski), and continued their project discussed in last year’s presentation (“DTA of Bonded Repairs on the Wing Skin of the C130 Using Finite Elements“) by providing experimental testing data to validate their simulation results.

If you are interested in this topic, you can view Brian’s technical paper presentation (in PowerPoint show or PDF format) via the below link (note: you must be a registered user to view the training materials):

Preview StressCheck v12.0!

Would you like to schedule a preview demonstration of the new features in StressCheck v12?

We would be happy to walk you through the exciting updates to the user interface design, model navigation and visualization tools, and enhanced meshing features.

On February 7, 2023 a 2-hour webinar titled “What’s New and Improved in StressCheck Professional” was provided by ESRD’s Brent Lancaster to a group of StressCheck enthusiasts. This webinar provided demonstrations of the “latest and greatest” enhancements in StressCheck v11.1, and a look toward future development activities happening in StressCheck v11.2. In case you missed it, the webinar slides and the webinar recording are now available!

Some highlights of the webinar included:

• Overview of recent features and enhancements already implemented in StressCheck Professional
• Demonstration of key features and enhancements available in StressCheck v11.1
• Overview of current development activities and future plans for StressCheck Professional
• Demonstration of key features and enhancements expected with the release of StressCheck v11.2
• Open discussion and Q&A

Many thanks to the StressCheck enthusiasts who attended the live webinar and subsequent Q&A session, as well as the StressCheck enthusiasts taking the time from their busy schedules to view the webinar recording.

As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns about StressCheck Professional and we’ll be happy to assist!

Clicking on the above link will redirect you to the original webinar post and will automatically scroll you to the webinar recordings section. For your viewing convenience the 2-hour webinar recording was edited into two parts, each approximately 57 minutes in length.

Clicking the above link will redirect you to the ESRD Resource Library where you may download a PDF of the PowerPoint slides presented during the webinar. Note: as the webinar slides are in PDF format, they do not included the video demonstrations. These demonstrations can be found individually at the following links (or viewed from the webinar recordings):

• StressCheck Tutorial: Automeshing Thin Regions with Pentas and Hexas via the Thin Section Method
• StressCheck Tutorial: Mixed (Hexa/Penta) Boundary Layer Automesh Refinement
• StressCheck Tutorial: Crack Front Automeshing with Mixed Mesh, Integration Layer and Grade Toward Ends Options
• StressCheck Tutorial: Parametric TLAP Scaling for Nonlinear Events

Interested in a StressCheck Training Course?

If you would like to learn more about mastering StressCheck via an instructor-led training course, virtual or on-site, please complete the form below and we will be happy to reach out to you at your earliest convenience.

In this “S.A.F.E.R. Simulation” post we will share the key takeaways for engineers and their managers from a recent ESRD webinar on “Durability and Damage Tolerance Analysis Best Practices in the A&D Industry”. We’ll identify the factors that restrain the wider adoption of computational numerical simulation methodologies, and in particular finite element analysis (FEA) software, when used for detail stress analysis in support of critical engineering tasks such as fatigue life prediction. We hope to lift the fog that exists over the limitations of legacy FEA methods that are encountered by even the most expert simulation analysts. These same challenges make durability & damage tolerance (DaDT) calculations impractical if not risky for the occasional and especially new engineering user to perform.

Why DaDT is becoming ever more important with aging aircraft fleets….

The C130 Hercules transport aircraft depends heavily on reliable DaDT predictions to stay in service

There are numerous fixed wing and rotorcraft platforms that have far exceeded their initial program estimates for years in service. Keeping these aircraft flying safely with ever increasing performance requirements has fueled the need for more reliable and robust computational tools in fatigue life and fracture crack growth calculations to support the DaDT engineering function within repair, maintenance, and sustainment organizations. Aerospace and Defense (A&D) conferences like the Aircraft Airworthiness and Sustainment (AA&S) and Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) have become increasingly important in their role to share best practices and new technologies which can improve aircraft life and reduce cost by expanding maintenance intervals. These conferences have revealed the need for new simulation technologies, and software tools based upon them, which improve the fidelity, accuracy, thoroughness, and speed of engineering analysis with improved confidence, reliability, and robustness of results and processes that is independent of the user or model.

To illustrate this growing demand, a strength engineer performing a “typical” stress analysis at the design stage is often delighted with answers within, say, 5% of actual or expected values. But when performing DaDT engineering simulations, being “close” with stress intensity factor (SIF), beta or other fracture mechanics computations is not good enough. For example, as the below figure demonstrates, being off by as little as 5% in SIF predictions can result in a 350% difference in crack growth cycles. The impact of getting this type of prediction wrong can be catastrophic for engineers practicing in the A&D industry (and beyond).

The sensitivity in DaDT life predictions is driven by unknown risks in the input data (e.g. SIF’s)

The application and value of FEA-based tools for numerical simulation is well established in the commercial and military aviation industry. The structural design, loads, strength and stress groups routinely use finite element models to generate internal loads of entire aero structures. FEA tools are then used to perform detail stress analysis to calculate margins of safety on components that are resistant to engineering handbooks, design curves, closed form solutions, and empirical data.

However, in many organizations there is still a preference for quick hand-whipped stress analysis with ample margins of safety when the alternative is constructing complete 3D virtual prototypes with no detail lacking, or to perform more testing on physical prototypes.

Fast high-Fidelity FEA of large aircraft assemblies is still problematic…

Modeling of large multi-scale spanning geometries for capturing SIF’s is unfeasible in most FEA codes

The wider-spread use of FEA tools in fatigue and fracture domains for DaDT calculations is another matter. Over ESRD’s twenty plus years of working within the aerospace community, as well as attending industry conferences like ASIP and AA&S, we have observed a reluctance to turn to the FEA tool kit in the calculation of important DaDT engineering data such as SIF’s. This is surprising as ever-increasing demands on airframe performance and life expectancy are requiring a larger volume of higher-fidelity structural analyses be conducted with improved levels of certainty and confidence. This is occurring at a time where budgetary constraints translates into fewer engineers available to perform analysis work that has become more complex, all with less time for advanced training and fewer resources to rely upon in methods and tools support groups.

In interviewing engineers and their managers who are responsible for DaDT work, we have heard these reservations about the generic use of FEA:

“It takes too long to import and clean up the geometry then build a high-resolution mesh around a high-risk or damaged component.”

“Solving crack propagation problems on my desktop computer takes too long as it is, then I have to go thru many cycles to debug and tune a model to get a result that is believable.”

“The quality of my solutions are a subjective exercise at best, based on my years of experience in handling similar types of analysis problems.”

“My team managers have more faith in historical analysis methods and it’s hard to convince them to let us loose on a digital model.”

All of the above issues were indeed valid at one time. It is not surprising that an organizational dependency arose on using closed-form solutions and empirically-based handbook tables to predict SIF’s. That was true even for design geometries and load cases that had little resemblance to their textbook surrogates.  Yet, not every analysis can be reduced to well-known cases like a simple plate with a thru-crack. It can be risky to force fit an existing curve or table to meet the needs of an analysis which is clearly well out of its original scope. An example is the use of compounding beta factors to account for variances in geometry and loads which can be precarious to apply and prone to error.

Despite these challenges, many DaDT engineers, rather than changing the legacy processes of their organizations, rely on historical methods no matter however approximate they are.  When these simpler methods failed, they would as a last resort – clearly not the first choice – turn to FEA for modelling complex 3D geometries with a wide variety of loadings, material types, residual stresses, crack shapes, and other complicating features.

Another inconvenient truth…

Despite their longevity in the industry, even legacy FEA methods and software struggle with these more complex classes of problems in DaDT, even when employed by simulation experts.  Obtaining consistently accurate and numerically verifiable solutions with traditional finite element methods has unfortunately added more complexity, time, risk, and cost that was prohibitive for many organizations to endure, especially when they were seeking speed, confidence, and safety.  Only a few highly experienced and well-trained DaDT specialists could perform the work due largely to endless sources of approximations, idealizations, decisions, judgement calls and errors in modelling, analysis, and results interpretation. There was little time available to think about numerical verification, much less understand it was not the same as results validation.

The reason for this state of simulation in DaDT is often obscured by a fog of complexity hiding underneath the hood of legacy FEA codes. The foundational finite element theory, methods, and technology base implemented by nearly all commercial FEA software products has remained largely unchanged over decades. That is not to say there have not been substantial improvements in aspects of FEA such as model creation for faster preprocessing, high performance computing for faster analysis, and improved visualization for post-processing. Yet, these only masked underlying limitations that made FEM an art for the expert masters rather than a reliable numerical computational science for the engineering masses.

These limitations are well known to users of simulation software – as evidenced by the size of the element library – but are less so recognized by their managers who often think this is just the way it has to be. In our next S.A.F.E.R. Simulation post we plan to discuss how these limitations in legacy FEA throttle the wider use and economic value of numerical simulation across the A&D industry. Nowhere is this timelier than in the supply and service chains which have increasing authority for design and analysis, and now new accountability for lifecycle maintenance and program sustainment that requires deeper expertise in DaDT.

Fixing the Holes…

Example 3D crack life calculation using FEA-based methods (ESRD’s Crack Propagation Analysis Tool)

For the last decade ESRD has been at the forefront of advancements in numerical simulation that makes the performance of finite element analysis less a craft of modelling traps, tips, and tricks when practiced by experts, and more S.A.F.E.R. methodology when used by the non-expert. With these advancements it is now possible for DaDT engineers to conduct analyses using more transparent models with greater accuracy, producing faster simulations in more efficient workflow processes which require less re-meshing and debugging, and generating more reliable results from inherently more robust methods independent of the level of expertise of the user or complexity of the engineering problem.

In a future S.A.F.E.R. post on the use of FEA in DaDT we will dive deeper into what makes this now possible in practice. Until then, in the most recent ESRD webinar on DaDT we demonstrated several example fatigue life and crack propagation problems which illustrated that conventional expectations of being “close enough” are no longer “good enough”.  To view this webinar click here. If your corporate firewall prohibits live access please send us an email to webinars@esrd.com and we can provide a link to download.

What do you think…

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Related links and conversations…

• ESRD’s DaDT and Fracture Mechanics Application Highlights (via ESRD.com)
  • Learn about the types of DaDT and fracture mechanics applications for which ESRD is best suited, and how A&D engineers solving legacy aircraft problems can benefit from our simulation technology.
• Seven Questions to Ask CAE Vendors of Structural Analysis and Simulation Software (via Engineering.com)
  • Engineering.com Editor Shawn Wasserman highlights what questions are driving simulation technology and development, and what factors should determine the best tool for a simulation (such as DaDT).
• NAFEMS World Congress 2017 Tackles the Big Issues in Simulation and Analysis (via Digital Engineering)
  • DE’s Jamie Gooch describes the events and presentations given at the most recent NAFEMS World Congress, including how ESRD’s Chairman Dr. Barna Szabó warned against democratization of simulation without Simulation Governance.

To receive future S.A.F.E.R. Simulation posts…

This joint ESRD/Rev-Sim webinar will explore Sim-Gov compliant Sim Apps for democratization of simulation.

On July 29, 2019 a joint webinar on the the importance of Simulation Governance in FEA-based Sim App development & deployment, titled “Democratization of Simulation Governance-Compliant Sim Apps”, was provided by ESRD’s Brent Lancaster and Rev-Sim‘s Malcolm Panthaki.

In this timely webinar, we discussed why it is essential that Sim Apps implement Numerical Simulation technologies which enable the practice of Simulation Governance in order for the vision of democratization of simulations to be realized, as well as why it is important for engineering managers to get on the Simulation Governance train sooner rather than later. Strategies were explored for democratizing engineering simulations via Sim Apps which are: 1) based on the latest Numerical Simulation technologies, 2) available in Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) form, and most importantly 3) Simulation Governance-compliant.

Live demos of ESRD’s CAE Handbook and Multi-Fastener Analysis Tool (MFAT) were provided in order to prove that COTS, FEA-based, Simulation Governance-compliant Sim Apps are not just “vaporwares” but plug-and-play software solutions!

View Webinar Recording

Click the button below to view the 4 part, 55-minute webinar recording (scroll to the bottom of the webinar landing page to find the videos):

View Recording

View Webinar Slides

Click the button below to view the webinar slides (PowerPoint Show):

View Slides

Acknowledgments

As always, many thanks to our attendees for their interest and feedback! And, of course, thanks to the Rev-Sim leadership for their time and contributions. We hope to collaborate on another webinar in the future!

As we continue to adapt to a mix of remote and in-office work, we hope that this past year you found our software products, customer support, training options/courses, “StressCheck Tip of the Week” posts, and e-Learning resources to be helpful and accommodating. We certainly couldn’t do it without your valuable feedback and contributions! We are committed to supporting your current and future engineering endeavors and look forward to what the future holds in 2023.

In 2022, we re-designed StressCheck’s documentation to include online and offline versions, attended ASIP 2022 as exhibitors and presenters, released StressCheck v11.1 (our best release yet!), and made numerous additions to our resource library to aid in a more efficient and enjoyable StressCheck onboarding process. The following are a few highlights that we’d like to share from this past year.

ASIP Conference 2022 Impressions…

In late November 2022, ESRD exhibited at the ASIP Conference and enjoyed re-connecting with StressCheck users, industry colleagues and our partners Hill Engineering (BAMpF 3D fatigue crack growth software developers) and LexTech (AFGROW developers). We also provided a training course and conference paper on the modeling and analysis of bonded doubler repairs.

Read more about our conference proceedings here.

StressCheck v11.1 Released…

We were pleased to release StressCheck v11.1 in late July 2022, made possible by the dedication and hard work of our development and QA teams. This release was packed with new features and enhancements in the areas of automatic meshing, fracture mechanics and global-local applications:

For a quick recap of the highlights in StressCheck v11.1 view the following short video:

Does your organization have an active StressCheck SM&TS contract but hasn’t yet upgraded to StressCheck v11.1? Contact us to get started with the upgrade!

Live Webinar Coming Soon…

On February 7th, 2023, we are planning for a live webinar to review what’s new and improved with the release of StressCheck v11.1, as well as preview the new features and enhancements under development for StressCheck v11.2 (targeted for release in Summer 2023).

Some highlights of features under development include (but are not limited to):

• Mesh seeding to guide the Automesh by automatically using pre-existing node locations.
• Upgraded toolbar icons for a clear and improved user experience.
• New option to select the toolbar icons between 16×16 (default), 20×20 and 24×24 pixels size.
• Movable Min/Max labels for Results plotting and extractions.
• A Dependencies button on the Parameter pane which lists all dependencies on the selected parameter.
• Column sorting and filtering for Parameters pane table including “Go To” to search for parameters.
• Predictive text on input fields has been implemented for parameter and formula names.
• Enhanced Index controls for filtering and sorting Geometry and Mesh object lists. including “Go To ID…” to access a specific ID.
• Improved visualization of Selected status on dropdown lists containing assignment/set records.
• Overhauled the Display Objects pane to support selective number ranges and additional object types.
• Re-designed color definitions pane.
• A list of object IDs belonging to a set “Contents:” and a list of objects that reference the set “Used By:” are now displayed when selecting a record on the Sets page.
• Improved consistency of DeLast/Undo functionality

Pre-register for the “What’s New and Improved in StressCheck” webinar by completing the form below:

Wishing for Good Tidings and Good Health

Finally, we’d like to wish all of our customers, partners and friends Happy/Safe Holidays and a Happier/Healthier 2023!

Keep up with the latest from ESRD by subscribing to our newsletter:

WATCH THIS WEBINAR

Part 1: What's New in StressCheck v11.1, Thin Section Demo, Boundary Layer Demo

Part 2: Crack Front Demo, TLAP Scaling Demo, Coming Soon in StressCheck

Last week, ESRD wrote a guest contribution for Altair’s Innovation Intelligence blog titled “Hyper-Fidelity Structural Analysis for S.A.F.E.R. Numerical Simulation in the Aerospace Industry“.  Thanks to Altair for their collaboration and support of S.A.F.E.R. Simulation.

This guest contribution was intended to compliment and preview Altair’s October 17th ESRD use case webinar (don’t worry if you missed this webinar, the recording is already available).

Here’s an excerpt from the Innovation Intelligence blog article:

Across the engineering community there is much discussion about the democratization of simulation; meaning the reliable use of numerical simulation by non-simulation experts who may be design engineers, new analysts, or occasional users. The hope is that much of the complexity, time, and risk of performing FEA can be wrung out of simulation in a way that finally allows simulation-driven design to be led by design engineers. Indeed democratization has great potential in the A&D industry to compress the product development lifecycle, but is it realistic? The answer few may want to hear is that this will not be easy to accomplish using legacy FEA technologies, methodologies, and software tools.

The key takeaways are as follows:

• The pressure on engineering organizations to support the increasing complexity, higher performance, shorter design cycles, and longer life expectancy of products they produce and maintain is relentless.
• Legacy computational methodologies, software tools, and simulation processes that have been used for years to perform FEA are slow to master, precarious to use, and unreliable in the hands of the non-expert or infrequent user. Sources of errors are numerous and results are often dependent on the user, model, mesh, and software.
• There is unfortunately a reluctance by some managers and team leaders to support the performance of more computationally-based 3D detail stress analysis due to the perceived time and complexity involved, especially when compared to relying on handbook solutions, design curves, closed form approximations, homegrown spreadsheets, higher margins of safety, or ultimately more time for physical prototyping and testing.
• A different approach to numerical simulation has been developed and commercialized by APA partner ESRD which takes much of the art and craft out of finite element modelling.
• The result is that the performance of structural analysis is more simple, accurate, fast, efficient, and reliable for both the frequent expert and only occasional user (S.A.F.E.R.).

Thoughts? Feedback? Leave us a comment!

ESRD is hosting joint webinars on July 17th and July 29th, both at 1:00 pm EST.

Want to learn from the experts in FEA-based Simulation Application (Sim App) development for standardization & automation of complex engineering analysis tasks, such as 3D fatigue crack growth, 3D ply-by-ply laminated composite analysis or other challenging applications you’d like to safely put into the hands of non-experts?

This July, ESRD will be partnering with several industry leaders to provide not one but TWO stimulating webinars on the latest in FEA-based Sim App development.

The Latest Developments in Sim Apps for 3D Crack Growth Simulations

BAMF Example Crack Front Estimate via StressCheck/AFGROW Integration (courtesy Hill Engineering).

First, ESRD is pleased to join Hill Engineering, LLC (developers of BAMF) and LexTech, Inc. (developers of AFGROW) for a joint webinar on Wednesday July 17, 2019 @ 1:00 pm EST. This collaborative webinar will be titled “3D Crack Growth Simulation: Advancements & Applications“, and will detail the latest technological advancements in Sim Apps for accurate simulation of three-dimensional metallic crack growth via coupled finite element analysis (FEA) and fatigue life computations.

During this webinar, you will see the latest in 3D crack growth predictions via Hill Engineering’s Broad Application for Modeling Failure (BAMF) Sim App, which provides a robust integration between StressCheck’s high-fidelity DaDT/fracture solutions and AFGROW’s crack growth life prediction capabilities.

Additionally, ESRD, LexTech & Hill Engineering representatives will explain how each of their respective technologies seamlessly fit together to enable automated, verified & validated (i.e. backed by experimental data) fatigue crack propagation.

Register Now

The Importance of Simulation Governance in Sim App Development & Deployment

This joint ESRD/Rev-Sim webinar will explore Sim-Gov compliant Sim Apps for democratization of simulation.

Then, on Monday July 29, 2019 @ 1:00 pm EST, ESRD will join the thought leaders at Revolution in Simulation (Rev-Sim) for a joint webinar on why Simulation Governance compliance is essential to the development & deployment of Sim Apps titled “Democratization of Simulation Governance-Compliant Sim Apps“.

In this timely webinar, we will discuss why it is essential that Sim Apps implement Numerical Simulation technologies which enable the practice of Simulation Governance in order for the vision of democratization of simulations to be realized, as well as why it is important for engineering managers to get on the Simulation Governance train sooner rather than later. Strategies will be explored for democratizing engineering simulations via Sim Apps which are: 1) based on the latest Numerical Simulation technologies, 2) available in Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) form, and most importantly 3) Simulation Governance-compliant.

Register Now

More ESRD Webinars…

Interested in the complete ESRD webinar listing, including on-demand recordings from past ESRD webinars? Visit our webinars page here:

View Webinar Listing

BAMF running as an AFGROW plug-in (courtesy Mr. Josh Hodges/Hill Engineering, LLC)

On July 17, 2019 a joint webinar on the latest developments in FEA-based 3D crack growth simulation, titled “3D Crack Growth Simulation: Advancements & Applications”, was provided by ESRD’s Brent Lancaster, LexTech’s James Harter and Hill Engineering’s Joshua Hodges.

In this webinar, we detailed the latest technological advancements for accurate simulation of three-dimensional crack growth in metallic structures, with and without residual stresses, via coupled finite element analysis (FEA) and fatigue life computations. Additionally, the webinar expanded further on the DaDT analysis best practices presented in ESRD’s June 2017 webinar, titled “Durability and Damage Tolerance (DaDT) Analysis Best Practices“, and highlighted the importance of mitigating the errors of approximation associated with stress intensity factors (SIF’s) and if applicable, engineered residual stresses (e.g. cold-working).

Webinar attendees from a wide range of industries were treated to a demo of Hill Engineering’s Broad Application for Modeling Failure (BAMF) Sim App, which provides a robust integration between StressCheck’s high-fidelity DaDT/fracture solutions and AFGROW’s crack growth life prediction capabilities. The BAMF demonstration showed how to set up a parametric model for DaDT analysis via StressCheck and then, with limited user intervention, integrate with AFGROW and StressCheck via their respective COM API’s to perform an on-demand 3D crack growth simulation. It was very impressive demo, indeed!

View Webinar Recording

Click the button below to view the 3 part, 65-minute webinar recording (scroll to the bottom of the webinar landing page to find the videos):

View Recording

View Webinar Slides

Click the button below to view the webinar slides (PowerPoint Show):

View Slides

Additional Resources

During the webinar, we identified several relevant DaDT and/or crack growth simulation resources that may be of interest:

• “Analytical Modelling of Fatigue Crack Behaviour Under Representative Spectrum Loading in the F/A-18 A/B Y508 Wing Root Shear Tie”, Dr. Kevin Walker (DST Group)
• “Crack Aspect Ratio Investigation, Analytical Methods Subcommittee: Round Robin for Cx Holes”, Mr. Robert Pilarczyk (Hill Engineering, LLC)
• “Benchmarking Problems in Fatigue Crack Growth Analyses”, Mr. Robert Pilarczyk (Hill Engineering, LLC)
• “Numerical Simulation Series: Fracture Mechanics Parameters”, Dr. Ricardo Actis (ESRD)
• “Improving Global-Local Simulation Workflows for High-Fidelity Stress and Damage Tolerance Analysis”, Mr. Eric Buettmann & Mr. Gordon Lehman (ESRD)
• “Computation of SIFs for Cracks in Cold-Worked Holes”, Dr. Ricardo Actis & Mr. Matt Watkins (ESRD), Dr. Scott Prost-Domasky (AP/ES) and Mr. Joshua Hodges (USAF)
• “Crack Propagation Analysis Tool for 3D Crack Simulation: A Simulation App Case Study”, Mr. Matt Watkins (ESRD)
• The Contour Method for Measuring Residual Stresses (Hill Engineering, LLC)

Acknowledgments

As always, many thanks to our attendees for their interest and feedback! And, of course, thanks to LexTech and Hill Engineering for their time and contributions. We hope to collaborate on another webinar in the future!