ESRD’s Chairman and Co-Founder, Dr. Barna Szabó, will be providing a keynote address at NAFEMS World Congress 2017, held in Stockholm, Sweden from June 11-14.

Here is the abstract of his address:

On the Formulation and Application of Design Rules

Numerical simulation in connection with the design and maintenance of mechanical and structural components subjected to cyclic loads is addressed from the perspectives of designers and authorities responsible for the formulation of design rules.

Design rules are typically stated in the form: F_max  ≤  F_all.That is, the maximum value of some functional F must not be greater than its allowable value F_all.  Since F_maxis computed numerically, only an approximation to F_max, denoted by F_num, is known. Therefore it is essential to have means to estimate the error F_max– F_num otherwise the design cannot be certified.   Furthermore, numerical error penalizes design. This underlines the importance of solution verification, a fundamental technical requirement.

The formulation of design rules involves the application of verification, validation and uncertainty quantification procedures.  The goal is to establish rules for design that make it extremely unlikely that failure would occur during the service life a component.  This involves measurements of fatigue life using test coupons. Statistical models are used for the generalization of test data.

The stress in the test section of the coupons is either constant or varies smoothly.  Therefore it is necessary to formulate predictors suitable for generalization of the test results to arbitrary stress fields.  Many plausible generalizations are possible.  A new class of predictors and their calibration and ranking will be described and illustrated by examples.  It is shown that ranking of predictors is possible only when experiments are performed outside of the range of calibration.

Since design rules are conditioned on the experimental information available when the rules are formulated, revision of design rules is necessary when new information becomes available.  Proper and efficient application of design rules, the management of empirical data accumulated over time and systematic updating of mathematical models used in the formulation of design rules require an organizational support structure and exercise of simulation governance.