NAFEMS for Students

The What is series provides an introduction to the various domains of engineering simulation.

These brief introductory materials include What is Implicit and Explicit Finite Element Simulation, What are Particle and Meshless Methods or What is Verification & Validation.

Y​ou can find the rest of the What is series in the Student Resources section by searching for the keyword what and setting the resource type to Publication.

Publications include books, booklets and leaflets that NAFEMS has published, covering many areas of engineering analysis and simulation. We are now providing you access to a selected few of them in the Student Resources section.

How To Analyse Practical Problems using FE Software is a great example of the publications NAFEMS aims to deliver, offering a practice enriched way of guided learning.If you are interested in learning how to select appropriate elements for your applications then How To Use Elements Effectively will be of interest. Finally, Knowledge Base - Don't Forget the Basics, provides an easily digestable guide to bring you up to speed on some fo the fundamental techniques that are used by industry.

Various types of content have been recorded and saved into our archives over the years. Webinars are leading the pack, but there are Presentation Recordings from conferences as well.

The Talking Shop webinar series is a good place to broaden your knowledge in the practical aspects of finite element modelling. Topics range from the practical consequences of St Venant's principle to low and high-cycle fatigue.

You can access detailed technical presentations on various topics from renowned industrial experts, such as "Fatigue Characterisation and Testing of Material" by Dr. Andrew Halfpenny and "Some Failures & Studies with Lessons Learned" by Dr. Jim Wood.

There are several NAFEMS resources that offer a sneak-peek into the everyday - non-academic - use of engineering simulation, or into other aspects of engineering professional development. Planning and Reporting is an aspect having major significance in the overall success of a simulation engineers work, yet this is not something one can learn at a University. Justification for the Use of CAE from a business standpoint is another problem that we as simulation engineers are faced with.

Some of the recordings of the keynote presentations from the 2023 World Congress in Tampa are available for you as well

• Developments in Advanced, Physics-based Modelling and Simulation Techniques in the Realm of Defence and Security at Dstl by Daniel Pope (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl),
• A Half-Century of Research and Mentoring in Fluid Dynamics from Hemodynamics to Hypersonics by Professor Wesley L. Harris (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
• Digital Transformation of System Performance Development by a Flexible Digital Thread by Ernesto Mottola (Toyota Motor Europe),
• Unveiling the next frontier of engineering simulation by Alessandro Faure Ragani and Ian Symington (McKinsey & Company and NAFEMS Ltd.),
• The Role of Modeling and Simulation in the Age of AI by Mahmood Tabaddor (Accenture),
• S​imulation Powering Destination Zero by Bob Tickel (Cummins Engine Company).

We've given you access to several Conference Papers and Journal Articles that NAFEMS has published. You can find these with the respective resource type filter in the Student Resources section. These publications often contain case studies and best practices related to the application of numerical methods and can therefore a good reference point during your projects.

As an example, you could check out Hypervelocity Impact Simulation On Hard Ballistic Composites by M. May, T. Lässig from the Fraunhofer-Institute for High-Speed-Dynamics, EMI, Germany.

On demand courses provide a self-paced way to acquire new knowledge through the mix of written and video based lectures with the added ability to conduct self-tests after each section.

The short course (app. 2 hours) from Dr. Barna Szabó and Dr. Ricardo Actis discusses the Fundamentals of Simulation Governance. The presented bird's-eye view can provide you a better understanding of the role of simulation in mechanical engineering.

Dr. Barna Szabó is one of the authors of the renowned book on FEA; Szabó B.A. and Babuška I. Finite Element Analysis. John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1991. He co-founded the company ESRD Inc. Dr. Ricardo Actis was responsible for the implementation of advanced FEA procedures in the commercial finite element analysis software product StressCheck from ESRD.

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The NAFEMS Glossary is a valuable list of terms and definitions related to engineering modelling analysis and simulation.

Go to the NAFEMS Glossary