Analysis and Optimization of
Piezoelectric Energy
Harvesters for Selfpowered WirelessSensors: Road-compatible
PEH and Magneto-PEH
Tae Hee Lee,
Jihoon Kim& Tae Hyun Sung
Autonomous Finite Elements(AFE) – Are theyprecursors of aparadigm shift?
Zohar Yosibash
A First Course in
Computational Fluid
Dynamics - H. Aref
& S. BalachandarBook Review
by Dan Givoli

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2 Analysis and Optimization of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters for Self-powered WirelessSensors: Road-compatible PEH and Magneto-PEH
Tae Hee Lee, Jihoon Kim & Tae Hyun Sung
8 Autonomous Finite Elements (AFE) – Are they precursors of a paradigm shift?
Zohar Yosibash
13 A First Course in Computational Fluid Dynamics - H. Aref & S. BalachandarBook Review by Dan Givoli
16 UKACM United Kingdom
18 IACMM Israel
20 USACM USA
22 GACM

Germany

24 SEMNI

Spain

26 JACMJapan

28 JSCESJapan

30 GIMC

Italy

contents

32 ABMEC Brazil
34 CSMAFrance36 AMCA

Argentina

38 Conference Diary PlannerAnalysis and Optimization of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters
for Self-powered Wireless Sensors:
Road-compatible PEH and Magneto-PEH
byTae Hee Lee
thlee@hanyang.ac.kr& Jihoon Kim
Department ofAutomotive
Engineering& Tae Hyun Sung
Department ofElectrical Engineering
Hanyang University
Seoul, Korea

P

iezoelectric energy harvester

Energy harvesting is the process of
harvesting energy from ambient wasteenergy such as solar, wind, andmechanical energy. The energy
harvesting has been performed basedon various physical phenomena suchas electrochemistry, thermoelectricity,
triboelectricity, electromagnetic and soon. Among the various types of theenergy harvester, piezoelectric energy
harvester (PEH), which is based on thepiezoelectricity, has significantly attracted

attention as a major energy harvestingelement because it has the advantage ofhigh energy density as shown in Figure 1.
Recently, various studies have been
conducted to utilize the advantages of thePEH, and studies on PEH for roadway
and smart factory have been actively
conducted. Our research team in Hanynag
University has outperformed various
researches on PEH including developmentof new piezoelectric materials, harvester
circuit and packages, and energy harvester
modules for various industrial applications.
At this article analysis and optimizationof piezoelectric energy harvesters for
self-powered wireless devices fromroadway system and electric wires are
addressed.

Application of PEH to roadway system(RPEH)

Figure 1:
Power density of various energy
harvesting system

Figure 2:
Conceptual design of RPEH system
iacm expressions 48/21 2

As shown in Figure 2, road-compatible
piezoelectric energy harvester (RPEH)
can generate electric power by using themechanical load transmitted to the roadpavement when the vehicles move on theroad. The roadway can provide stableenergy by using continuous vehicle trafficand have large kinetic energy due to
speed and weight of vehicles. In order toperform the energy harvest using thecharacteristics of the roadway system,
various studies have been conductedfrom a laboratory scale [1,2] to a highway
scale [3,4] in recent years.
As a representative example, there is apilot installation of RPEH for a highway
rest area conducted by Hanyang University
in Korea [5]. The RPEH is the impact type
PEH that generates the electric power bymeans of hitting the harvester from wheelsof travelling vehicle load, which makes thedeflection of the simply supported beam
type piezoelectric energy harvester. First,
in order to determine the efficient power
generation structure of the harvester, thestress distribution of the harvester foreach power generation type using finite
element analysis was confirmed as shownin Figure 3. Also, as shown in Figure. 4,

Figure 3:
Stress distributions of the piezoelectric
device for the (a) both-end-fixed type and(b) one-end-fixed type [5]Figure 4:(a) Schematic of RPEH module and(b) PREH installation process at the highway rest area [5]Figure 5:(a) Schematic diagram of the RPEH systemwith wireless sensor network and LED indicators,(b) graph of the average displacement (μm)
with the module for 5 months,(c) average temperature (°C) data fromthe module for 16 day, and(d) a photograph of the LED indicators
installed on the roadway [5]10 harvester modules were installed on
the traffic road for independent energy
source, and the driving assistance LED
and wireless sensor system were installed
to demonstrate the state of energy
harvesting. The installed wireless sensor
system measured the internal temperature,
deformation, and leakage of the harvester
module as shown in Figure 5 (a).
Figures 5 (b) and (c) show some datacollected from the wireless sensor system.
In addition, the information of power
generation according to vehicle speed
was also collected, and a maximum power
density of 23.81W/m2 was archived(Figure 6).

Application of PEH to smart factory(MPEH)
Another representative application of the
PEH is a wireless sensor system for
smart factory. Since the smart factory is
operated under low light, and generates
low vibration and noiseless conditions,
there is not enough ambient energy
sources for energy harvesting.

Figure 6:
Generated voltages,
powers, and power
density from RPEH:(a) generated voltage
with time,(b) generated voltage
with vehicle speed,(c) generated power,and(d) power density at
various vehicular
speeds up to 50km/h [5]3 iacm expressions 48/21

Figure 7:
Conceptual design of
MPEH for wirelesssensor system

In this situation, magneto-piezoelectricenergy harvester (MPEH) using themagnetic field of the power line cableemerged as a new alternative. As shownin Figure 7, an MPEH is proposed todrive a PEH by using the magnetic fieldof a power line cable which AC current
generates the Lorentz force between themagnets. Even in an environment where
no vibration source exists, stable power
generation is possible because fully
reversed Lorentz forces are generatedusing the magnetic field of the AC power
cable.

Figure 8:(a) Two cases of the tip magnet direction,(b) output voltage of the MPEH, and(c) magnetic flux density and vector
potential [6]A representative example of MPEH is
to illustrate the wireless transmission oftemperature data using independent
power source harvested from power
cables of home appliances or power
plants [6]. In this study, the influenceof the magnet direction on the power
generation efficiency of MPEH wasanalyzed through CAE simulation modeland verified the simulation results throughphysical experiments. As shown in
Figure 8, the magnetic flux density andvector potential according to the magnet
direction were calculated, and the Lorentz
force acting on the magnet and the amountof power generation were compared. As aresult of the simulation, it was confirmedthat the generation power of MPEH ishigher in the case of the vertical type of themagnetic direction, and it was verified
through an experiment using a Helmholtz
coil as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9:
Verification of simulation result
through experiment using
Helmholtz coil [6]iacm expressions 48/21 4

Figure 10:
Applications of MPEH:(a) home appliance test and(b) power plant [6]Also, based on the simulation and experimental results, a wireless temperature
sensor system using power source
harvested from power cable of home
appliances or power plants wasconstructed as shown in Figure 10.
CAE-based design optimization of PEH
PEH has a higher power density thanother types of energy harvesters, but it
still has insufficient to drive various sensor
systems. To solve this problem, various
studies of design optimization of the PEH
using CAE simulation model have recently
been conducted. As shown in Figure 11,
the design optimization for the vibration
type RPEH was performed using thecommercial finite element software
ABAQUS [7]. The RPEH is a cantilever
beam type, and the fixed end is vibrated
by vehicle kinetic energy. The design
optimization of vibration type RPEH wasformulated as follows:

The VRMS is the root-mean-squared (RMS)
value of the output voltage. MassPEH
and fN are the total mass and natural
frequency of the PEH, respectively.
Objective functions and constraints wereconstructed to obtain improved power
generation performance of the RPEH
without increasing the weight. At the early

Figure 11:a) Conceptual design of the RPEH
module and(b) simulation model of the vibration
type RPEH [7]study, the natural frequency was avoided ina certain frequency range in order toprevent damage due to resonance of theharvester as shown in the above equation.
And, the kriging surrogate modeland design and analysis of computer
experiments (DACE) technique were
employed in the optimization process to
reduce the excessive computational costof the time-dependent analysis of RPEH.
The result of design optimization of RPEH
is given in Figure 12. The width andthickness of PZT ceramic and width ofsubstrate are decreased and the length of
the substrate is increased. As a result of
the design optimization, the RMS value ofthe output voltage is dramatically increased
5 iacm expressions 48/21

Figure 12:
Design optimization
results of RPEH [7]Figure 13:
Multiphysics simulation
model of MPEH [8]“ ... as various
multi-physics
analysistechniques ... areactively
employed, theperformance of
the PEH canbe accurately
predicted, theamount of power
generation isby 208% from 0.9497V to 2.9253V.
Recently, more practical problem
formulation and design optimizationof MPEH was performed using CAE
simulation model [8]. Since the MPEH
has a multiphysics phenomenon ofelectric-magnetic-piezoelectric, analysis of
the multiphysics is required to predict thepower generation performance ofthe MPEH. In this study, as shown in
Figure 13, the multiphysics analysis
model of the MPEH was constructed byusing commercial software COMSOLMultiphysics. The design optimization of
MPEH was formulated as follows:quite improved,
and the cost ofConcluding Remarks

the physicalexperiments is
effectively
reduced .”where PRMS is RMS value of the output
SUS
power, s PZT
max and s max are the maximum
iacm expressions 48/21 6

stresses of the PZT ceramic and substrate,
SUS are the ultimate strength
S PZTUt and S yof PZT ceramic and the yield strengthof the substrate, respectively. MassPEH
and MassPM are masses of the PEH andpermanent magnet. In this study, kriging
surrogate model was used to reduce thehigh computational cost of multiphysics
model in the optimization process. The
optimization result of the MPEH is given in
Figure 14. Both the length and thicknessof the PZT ceramic and substrate are
increased. As a result of the design optimization of the MPEH, the RMS value ofthe output power is significantly increased
by 730.28% from 0.469mW to 3.894mW.

Although PEH has the advantage ofhigh-power density and ease of use
compared to other harvesters, it is necessary to increase the amount of power
generation for an independent powersource to operate various sensor systems.
However, many PEH studies have been
conducted based on physical experiments,
so there is a limit to deriving the best

performance of the energy harvester. CAE
technology with optimum design should
be introduced to solve this problem.
Therefore, as various multi-physics
analysis techniques and model calibration
methods that consider uncertainty are
actively employed, the performance of thePEH can be accurately predicted, theamount of power generation is quite
improved, and the cost of the physicalexperiments is effectively reduced. In
addition, if the performance of theharvester is optimized through uncertaintybased optimization design techniques, thereliability and robustness of the system
can be improved as well. Moreover,
the analysis of PEH incorporated withmultiscale modeling and simulation canenhance greatly the performances of PEH
and may promise as an independent powersource of IoT and smart systems. l
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Korea
Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation
and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry ofTrade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the
Republic of Korea (No. 2018201010636A).

Figure 14:
Design optimization results of MPEH [8]References[1] X. Jiang, Y. Li, J. Li, J. Wang, J. Yao, Piezoelectric energy harvesting from traffic-induced pavement
vibration, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 6 (2014), 043110.
[2] H. Xiong, L. Wang, Piezoelectric energy harvester for public roadway: On-site installation and evaluation,
Applied Energy 174 (2016), pp. 101-107.
[3] Y. Shin, I. Jung, M. Noh, J.H. Kim, J. Choi, S. Kim, C. Kang, Piezoelectric polymer-based roadway energy
harvesting via displacement amplification module, Applied Energy 216 (2018), pp. 741-750.
[4] W. Hwang, K. Kim, J.Y. Cho, C.H. Yang, J.H. Kim, K.J. Song, Y. Song, D.H. Jeon, J.H. Ahn, S.D. Hong, J. Kim,
T.H. Lee, J.Y. Choi, H. Cheong, T.H. Sung, Watts-level road compatible piezoelectric energy harvester for aself-powered temperature monitoring system on an actual roadway,
Applied Energy 243 (2019), pp. 313-320.
[5] J.Y. Cho, K. Kim, W.S. Hwang, C.H. Yang, J.H. Ahn, S.D. Hong, D.H. Jeon, G.J. Song, C.H. Ryu, S.B. Woo,
J. Kim, T.H. Lee, J.Y. Choi, H. Cheong, T.H. Sung, A multifunctional road-compatible piezoelectric energy
harvester for autonomous driver-assist LED indicators with a self-monitoring system,
Applied Energy 242 (2019), pp.294-301.
[6] J.Y. Cho, J. Kim, K. Kim, C.H. Ryu, W. Hwang, T.H. Lee, T.H. Sung, Significant power enhancement methodof magneto-piezoelectric energy harvester through directional optimization of magnetization forautonomous IIoT platform, Applied Energy 254 (2019), 113710.
[7] J. Kim, S. Park, W. Lim, J. Jang, T.H. Lee, S.K. Hong, Y. Song, T.H. Sung, Design optimization of PZT-based
piezoelectric cantilever beam by using computational experiments, Journal of Electronic
Materials 45 (2016), pp. 3848-3858.
[8] J. Kim, T. H. Lee, Design optimization of contactless piezoelectric energy harvester considering
electromagnetic variables, Proceedings of Korean Congress on Computational
Mechanics 2019 (2019), pp. 128.
7 iacm expressions 48/21

A utonomous F inite E lements (AFE) –Are they precursors of a paradigm shift?
byZohar Yosibash
Computational
Mechanics &Experimental
Biomechanics Lab
School of MechanicalEngineering,
The Iby and Aladar
Fleischman Faculty ofEngineering
Tel Aviv University
Israelyosibash@tauex.tau.ac.ils “Laziness is built deep into our
1nature” we are on a constant search
for methods to allow minimal efforts toperform verified finite element (FE)analyses. For more than five decades
FE analysis required a qualified analyst
to determine the domain of interest,
apply material properties and boundary
conditions, generate a mesh, solve theresulting system of equations, verify theoutput and post process the analysis results
to reach a meaningful conclusion. The
required expertise and labor efforts haveprecluded the use of FE methods in daily
medical practice. Imagine that with a pushof a button, an orthopedic surgeon could
obtain a fracture risk assessment of apatient’s femur determined by FE analysis– see Figure 1.

A

Figure 1:
An AFE concept: with a push of a button, a patient’s CT scanis down-loaded from hospital’s database (PACS system),the femurs identified, automatically meshed, loaded and solved,
and the verified results interpreted and presented in a report thatpredicts the risk of fracture and illustrates the expected location
Recent scientific advancements suchas machine learning and high order FE
methods [1], facilitate a fully automatedmethodology for assessing numericalaccuracy. This process, that we refer toas “Autonomous Finite Elements” (AFE)might be considered a paradigm shift in theuse of FEA. Similar to the well-known
autonomous vehicle which can navigate
without the assistance of a driver, theAutonomous FE concept is a FE analysis
performed without the assistance of an analyst. AFE is possible because we are customizing the individual technologies to afairly specific problem and a specific goal.
Following [2] we describe Simfini, an AFE
12

iacm expressions 48/21 8

for a specific medical application:
determination of the risk of fracture forpatients with tumors of the femur. Simfini2is the first CE accredited application being
used in clinical practice to help physicians
determine whether or not a patient should
undergo prophylactic surgery to avoid an
imminent fracture.
A set of components are required for an
AFE realization for the analysis of bones(see Figure 2):(a) Image analysis of computed
tomography (CT) scans by deeplearning algorithms that segment the
femur automatically.
(b) Pointwise estimation of theinhomogeneous mechanical propertiesof the bone by analysis of image
density in the CT scan [3].
(c) Application of personalized physiologic
boundary conditions (loads andconstraints) that simulate daily
activities or falls on the side.
(d) Automatic generation of a FE mesh(with curved faces) to represent thebone of interest.
(e) An efficient high-order FE algorithm
that provides verification and control
of numerical errors.
(f) A post-processing algorithm thatanalyzes the FE solution andautomatically produces a report withthe most relevant data for the medical
doctor.
Automating bone segmentation, meshgeneration and application of boundary
conditions eliminate human intervention
which is labor intensive and prone tocreation of “subjective” models.
Such an AFE must be rigorously verified
before it can be safely used and thereafter
validated. Validation in our case requiresthat predictions made by the AFE aresupported by in-vitro experiments [4] andclinical outcomes on real patients [5-7].
We herein describe the different
components assembled to generate the
AFE and demonstrate its use in dailyclinical practice.

Quotation from Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) by Nobel Laureate in Economics, Prof. Daniel Kahneman
Indicates conformity with health and safety standards for products within the European Economic Area.

Figure 2:
Schematic diagram of
the components of the
AFE Simfini(Figure from [2])Automatic segmentation of patient’s
femurs from CT scans
Segmenting a femur from CT scans is
the process by which the bone volume ofinterest (voxels in the CT scan that areassociated with the bone) is isolated fromthe rest of the image. Because a bone’s
surface is not always clearly visible in the
CT scan and since the layer of cartilagethat separates the femur from the pelvis issometimes not visible, segmentation is
problematic. We apply two convolution
neural networks, trained on 70 manuallysegmented femurs from 39 different
patients. The CT scans were obtained fromvarious scanners and from different hospitals. In each CT of the training set, thevoxels belonging to femur, pelvis and othertissues were manually tagged. The segmentation process is illustrated in Figure 3.
A

The accuracy of the automatic segmentation was verified by comparing results
obtained from manual segmentation for
41 bones (which did not participate in the
training process), from male and female,young and old patients. The SørensenDice Coefficient and Average Surface
Distance were 0.98 ±0.003 and 0.36±0.05mm, considered as excellent accuracy.
Once segmentation is completed, a seriesof anatomical points are determined andused for the application of boundary
conditions and post-processing operations.
Assignment of inhomogeneous material
properties to the femur and boundary
conditions
Empirical relationships between longitudinal
Young’s modulus and Hounsfield Units(gray values in the CT scan) for cortical andBCD

Figure 3:
Segmentation pipeline. A. Separated bone after initial threshold segmentation - femur, pelvis attached and scatteredpoint clouds remain in the image. The colors in the figure represent CT slice height.
B. The bone after removing small unconnected components - femurs and pelvis remain connected.
C. The final voxels that represent the segmented femur.
D. Determination of the anatomical points used to apply the load and for post-processing
9 iacm expressions 48/21

trabecular tissues at each point within thebone are given by formulae [3,4]. Thus,
inhomogeneous material properties are
assigned at each integration point with thefemur based on the Hounsfield Unit at theclosest voxel in the CT scan.
Personalized loading boundary conditions,the hip contact force, of a magnitude ofapproximately 2.5 times body weight
are applied along a vector that connects
the center of femur’s head and the intercondylar notch. The distal part of thefemur is fully clamped. Falling on the sideboundary conditions can also be applied
using different anatomical points.
Automatic mesh generation and p-FE
solution
Simfini utilizes an automatic meshing3
library from Simmetrix that converts voxel
data into a discrete geometric surface andthen generates tetrahedral volume mesh.
Blending function methods are used forthe mapping to the standard element so
the high-order elements have an accurate
representation of element’s surfaces independently of the approximation space. The
automatic mesh generator also generates agraded mesh in regions of high curvatures
such as the femur neck, for example.
Typically, a whole femur is meshedby 4000 to 6000 tetrahedral elements (seea typical mesh for a femur in Figure 4).
p-Finite elements have several attractive
properties ideally suited for AFE such as
Figure 4:
Typical p-mesh for an entire
femur with boundary conditions(Figure from [2])the ability to automatically estimate thenumerical error by keeping the meshunchanged and systematically increasing
the polynomial degree p of the shape functions. Also p-elements may be significantly
distorted yet show robustness in terms ofdeterioration of the numerical accuracy [1].
The automatic verification of the numericalerror is performed by increasing the polynomial order of trial and test functions over a
fixed mesh, resulting in hierarchical FE
spaces and a monotonic convergence of4
the error in energy norm . This allows theuse of three consecutive FE solutions, callthem FE1, FE2, FE3, with increasing number of degrees of freedom N1 < N2 < N3,
and potential energies ΠFE1 >ΠFE2 >ΠFE3. .
The exact potential energy ΠEX is estimatedby solving the non-linear equation [1]and by obtaining ΠEX, the relative error inenergy norm (%) for each FE solution iscomputed by [1]These error estimates are used toautomatically determine whether thequality of the solution is sufficient to draw
conclusions from the latest FE solution,
or a more refined FE solution is required.
A parallel implementation uses multiple
threads to distribute the computation ofelement stiffness and load to different
CPU cores.
Since femur’s response under physiologicalstance position loading is well described by
the linear theory of elasticity and excellent
results have been obtained using isotropic
inhomogeneous relations for stanceposition loadings, see [3,4] and references
therein, a linear finite element analysis isperformed.
Automatic post processing of data for aclinical application: risk assessment of apathological fracture
An important requirement for an AFE isa clear definition of the required output.
Simfini was designed to provide anassessment of femurs’ stiffness and3

Simmetrix Inc., Clifton Park, NY 12065, USA

4

The energy norm of the vector function w is defined as

iacm expressions 48/21 10

where B(∙,∙) is the bilinear form of the linear elasticity operator.

strength. Since bone tissue failure depends
on averaged principal strains [8,9], these
are computed on a bone’s surface over an
area around a local extremum at five
regions in the femur — neck, trochanters,
proximal shaft, middle shaft, and distal
shaft. The ‘‘typical median principal strains’’
for the five regions in a ‘‘healthy femur’’were computed for many healthy femurs
and used as reference values. The ratio
between the absolute maximum principal
strain in an analyzed femur and the
median strain in the same anatomical
region of the disease-free femur iscalculated and identified as the ‘‘strain
fold ratio’’ (SFR). Clinical trials determined
the threshold SFR = 1.48 as the thresholdfor a pathological femoral fracture [5].
An example of Simfini’s output report forthe physician is presented in Figure 5.
Application of AFE in clinical practice:Predicting risk of a pathological fracture
in femurs with metastatic tumors
Metastasis of the femur may weaken thebone to the point at which a pathologic
fracture may occur during normal daily
activity, a major contributor to thedeterioration of the quality of life ofpatients with cancer. Pathologic fractures
initiate the period of dependent care,so preventive (prophylactic) surgery forpatients with an impending femur fracture
improves short-term survival, morbidity,functional outcome, and reduces lengthof a hospital stay. Orthopedic oncologists
have an acute need for an accurate
estimation of the risk of fracture to avoid
both under-treatment and over-treatment
in such patients.
Simfini was validated to be used byorthopedic oncologists to accurately
determine which patients are at high riskof fracture. A clinical retrospective study
was performed at the Sourasky Medical
Center in Tel-Aviv on a group of 15
patients who fractured their femurs andhad a pre-fracture CT scan within thepast five months, and a control group of

26 patients who had CT-based analyses,
did not undergo surgical intervention, andremained mobile and free of fracture overthe next five months [6]. All 41 CT scans
were automatically analyzed by Simfini and
the SFR was computed for all regions in
the femurs. In cases where the SFR was
higher than the 1.48 threshold, the predicted fracture location was reported. Figure
6A presents a descriptive analysis of the
SFR of the 41 patients in the clinical study.
As a comparison, Figure 6B presents thecommonly used Mirels score, for which 8
is the threshold for a prophylactic surgery.

Figure 5:
An example of the
Simfini report for apatient that has an
strain-fold-ratio>1.48
in the right femur at
the neck andintertrochanteric region

As may be clearly observed, all patientsthat fractured were identified by Simfini
ahead (prior to fracture), whereas those
who were fracture free for five months following the CT scan were mostly identified.
Compared to the Mirels score, the AFE issuperior and a valuable tool for the clinicalcommunity both in terms of specificity
and especially in terms of sensitivity. The
location of the pathological fracture wascorrectly predicted for all 15 patientswith a subsequent fracture.
The AFE Simfini has been installed at
the Sourasky Medical Center where it isused on a daily basis, and in parallel aprospective clinical trial is ongoing. A
typical recent example of the use of
Simfini is illustrated by Figure 7. A patient
diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma(liver cancer) underwent a CT scan in which
the metastatic tumor was hardly visible inthe cortical right femur. A Simfini analysis
was performed by the orthopedic surgeon
that estimated a SFR of 2.05, in the distal
Figure 6:
SFRs (in A) and
Mirels score (in B) for
patients who eventuallysustained a pathologicalfracture compared withthose who did notwithin six months
following the CT scan
(Figures from [6]11 iacm expressions 48/21

Figure 7:A) CT scan of femurs
and slice in theregion of interest;B) AFE analysis withthe predicted locationof the fracture;C) radiograph after
fracture

femur region, indicating a high risk offracture. Ten weeks after the CT scan,
while the patient was under radiation
therapy, a pathological fracture occurred at
the predicted location during normal daily
activity.
Summary
An AFE analysis might be considered aparadigm shift in the use of FEA. The
AFE described herein (although limited tolinear elastic problems) has successfully
combined automatic input acquisition (see also [10]), automatic FE modelling, an
automatic rigorous verification algorithm
and is supported by a thorough validation
process. Simfini has been developed toautomatically determine risk of fracture forpatients with tumors of the femurs, hasbeen validated and is in use in clinicalpractice. For each patient Simfini retrieves
automatically the CT scan of interest from
hospital’s PACS system, performs theanalysis for both femurs and places areport back into the PACS for the phisician
within an hour. The knowledge and tools
are available to deploy the power of FE
analyses into the hands of non-FEspecialists by developing AFEs for various
applications.
Acknowledgements
The presented article is based on close
collaboration with Mr. Kent Myers of
PerSimiO Ltd, Beer-Sheva, Israel,
Dr. Nir Trabelsi of Shamoon College ofEngineering, Beer-Sheva, Israel and
Dr. Amir Sternheim, head of the Orthopedic
Oncology National Unit at Sourasky
Medical Center in Tel-Aviv, Israel. l

References[1][2]

Szabo B. and Babuska I., Finite Element Analysis, Wiley, 1991.
Yosibash Z, Myers K, Trabelsi N, Sternheim A, Autonomous FEs (AFE) - A stride toward personalized
medicine, Comp. Math. Appl., 80(11), pp. 2417-2432, 2020.
[3] Yosibash Z, Trabelsi N. and Milgrom, C., Reliable simulations of the human proximal femur by high-orderfinite element analysis validated by experimental observations, Jour. Biomech., 40, pp. 3688-3699, 2007.
[4] Trabelsi N, Yosibash Z, Wutte C, Augat P and Eberle S, Patient-specific finite element analysis of thehuman femur – A double-blinded biomechanical validation, Jour. Biomech., 44, pp. 1666-1672 , 2011.
[5] Sternheim A, Giladi O, Gortzak Y, Drexler M, Salai M, Trabelsi N, Milgrom C and Yosibash Z, Pathologicalfracture risk assessment in patients with femoral metastases using CT-based finite element methods.
A retrospective clinical study, Bone, 110, pp. 215-220, 2018.
[6] Sternheim A, Traub F, Trabelsi N, Gortzak Y, Dadia S, Snir N, Gorfine M and Yosibash Z., When and where
do patients with bone metastases actually break their femur? A CT-based finite element analysis ofpatients, Bone & Joint Jour., 102-B, No. 5, pp. 638-645, 2020.
[7] Schermann H, Gortzak Y , Kollender Y, Dadia S, Trabelsi N, Yosibash Z and Sternheim A , Patient specificCT-based finite element analysis: a new tool to assess fracture risk in benign bone lesions of the femur,
Clin. Biomech., 80, article # 105155, 2020.
[8] Schileo E, Taddei F, Cristofolini L, Viceconti M, Subject-specific finite element models implementing amaximum principal strain criterion are able to estimate failure risk and fracture location on human
femurs tested in vitro, Jour. Biomech., 41(2), pp. 356–367, 2008.
[9] Yosibash Z., Tal D, Trabelsi N, Predicting the yield of the proximal femur using high order finite element
analysis with inhomogeneous orthotropic material properties, Phylos. Trans. R. Soc. A,
368 pp. 2707–2723, 2010.
[10] Kudela L, Kollmannsberger S, Almac, U and Rank, E, Direct structural analysis of domains defined bypoint clouds, Comp. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng., 358, article # 112581, 2020.

iacm expressions 48/21 12

A First Course in Computational
Fluid Dynamics
Hassan Aref andSivaramakrishnan (Bala) Balachandar
Cambridge University Press, UK, 2018

B
O
O
K

ISBN: : 978-1316630969, 404 pages, soft cover, £45.99 (List Price). .
Contents: Preface; 1: CFD in perspective; 2: Mappings; 3: Ordinary differential
equations – initial value problem; 4: Spatial discretization; 5: Boundary andEigenvalue ODEs; 6: Methods based on functional expansions; 7: Partial differential
equations; 8: Multi-dimensional partial differential equations; References; Index.
This is a very interesting and unique book on CFD. It is dramatically different in its
approach than all other CFD books that I have encountered. Its main unique feature isthat it considers fluid mechanics and basic numerical methods more than just necessary"background" for CFD, that has to be quickly acquired in a couple of chapters (if at all)before "getting to business", i.e., before considering the solution of 2D or 3D fluid flow
equations. Quite the contrary: the basic preparation for CFD here is deep and occupies
most of the book. In fact, what is usually regarded as the focus of CFD is covered onlyin the last two chapters, and especially in the last chapter, which, for the first time in thebook, discusses multi-dimensional PDEs and the solution of the incompressible NavierStokes equations. I find this non-traditional approach wise and useful for a reader who
wishes to deeply understand the basics of CFD, not just to master its technical aspects.

R
E
V
I
E
W

The book is selective in the CFD areas it chooses to cover, and quite a few important
areas are left out. Navier-stokes equations (for viscous flow) are discussed, Euler
equations (for inviscid flow) are not. Incompressible flow is discussed, compressible
flow is not. Finite difference methods and spectral methods are discussed at length,
finite volume methods only briefly, and finite element methods are not mentioned at all.
Stepping in pseudo-time to reach steady state is not discussed. But one can hardly
complain; there is so much material that can be compressed into 400 pages. I muchprefer deep analysis which is limited in scope, like this book offers, over a shallow catchit-all treatment. The missing areas can be found in other books.
The two authors are well-known experts in fluid mechanics and CFD. Aref, a world
leader in fluid mechanics, was a professor at Virginia Tech, and passed away in 2011,
before the book was completed. Balachandar, a professor and chairman at the
University of Florida, finished writing the book.
It is clear that the authors devoted a lot of effort and thought to every little detail whilewriting the book. The chapter and section structure is logical, and it is easy to find one's
way when looking for a certain subject. The explanations are usually crystal clear.
There are many excellent examples, problems and computer exercises scattered inevery chapter, all standing out in shaded boxes. Important concepts are written in boldface. There are quite a few illustrations (although in some cases additional illustrations
could have helped, e.g., in the discussion on spurious oscillations in Chapter 7). The
entire appearance of the book is pleasant to the eye and inviting to read.

by

Dan Givoli
Technion Israel Institute ofTechnology
givolid@technion.ac.il

Hassan Aref

Sivaramakrishnan (Bala) Balachandar
13 iacm expressions 48/21

Chapter 1 is an introduction, presenting numerical concepts like convergence andround off error, fluid mechanics concepts like turbulence and the Kolmogorov
microscale, and CFD concepts like RANS, LES and DNS. To motivate the investigationof apparently simple model problems (instead of jumping directly into the ocean of
CFD), the authors make the interesting remark that "some of the most profounddiscoveries in CFD have come from the study of models using special purpose
numerical methods." As an example, they discuss the Lorenz equations, which lookquite simple but exhibit remarkably complicated solution behavior, and constitute a
simplified mathematical model for atmospheric convection. The chaotic nature ofweather prediction begins there!
Chapter 2 discusses "models" that can be described purely at thealgebraic level. The authors discuss the solution of nonlinear
algebraic equations using simple (fixed-point) iteration and
Newton's method. They analyze the stability of the fixed point
and of the numerical method. Later they explain the concept ofsubharmonic bifurcations and the use of Newton's method in thecomplex plane. An example to the latter is the "Julia set"; see
Figure 1. The chapter ends with a discussion on the connection
between algebraic mappings and fluid flows, and especially that
related to Poincaré sections.

Figure 1:
The "Julia set", which represents thesolution of a certain (algebraic) cubic
equation in the complex plane.
The picture is taken from Wikipedia(use permitted), and appears as
Figure 2.4 in the book

Chapter 3 is about initial value problems governed by ODEs.
The entire chapter discusses the numerical solution of this typeof problems using Finite Difference (FD) methods, including
implicit and explicit Euler, Runge-Kutta, Adams-Bashforth andmany other methods. The stability and accuracy of the methods
are carefully analyzed. All this is extremely well written.
The last half of the chapter is devoted to presenting niceexamples for the solution of physical problems modeled byinitial value problems. It is incredible that the authors could findsuch a rich sequence of fluid mechanics problems that can bemodeled by a system of ODEs (directly, not by discretizing aPDE):a drop on a flat plate, a collapsing bubble (an important exampleof cavitation), the potential flow that a rigid body moving in thefluid generates, and motion of a vortex in the flow.
See Figure 2 in relation with the latter application.
Chapter 4 discusses spatial discretization in 1D. FD
approximations for differential operators, using central andone-sided stencils, are presented and analyzed. Von Neumannerror analysis is introduced, and amplitude and phase (dispersion)
errors are discussed. The chapter also includes sections oncompact difference schemes, non-uniform discretization suchas that using Chebyshev-Gauss-Lobatto points, interpolation
methods and various numerical integration schemes.

Figure 2:
Motion of four symmetrically placed
vortex pairs, obtained from the solutionof a set of ODEs describing theevolution of vorticity in fluid flow.
This is Figure 3.10 in the book.

Chapter 5 discusses two-point boundary value problems andtwo-point eigenvalue problems. Two types of methods arecovered: shooting methods and so-called relaxation methods.
In the latter, discretization leads to a system of algebraic
equations which are solved iteratively. (An ethnologicalobservation: even though such methods dominate computational
solid mechanics using finite element methods, the term "relaxation" is almost never usedin that context.) Applications that are considered here include the Blasius equation,boundary layer on a wedge, Poiseuille flow, Couette flow and von Karman flow.
Eigenvalue problems considered include the Graetz problem, thermal (Rayleigh-Benard)
instability, shear flow instability (associated with the Orr-Sommerfeld equation), andmore.
Chapter 6 concerns spectral methods (still in 1D). The first half of the chapter is avery nice exposition of the basic theory of spectral methods. The second half

iacm expressions 48/21 14

discusses specific methods, i.e., the Galerkin, tau, collocation and pseudo-spectral
methods. The explanation on pseudo-spectral methods is the best I have everseen. Aliasing and FFT are also discussed. Incidentally, the authors write that in
the Galerkin method, one requires that each of the trial functions individually satisfy
all the boundary conditions. This is not generally true, as trial functions are required
to satisfy only essential boundary conditions (Dirichlet conditions for 2nd orderequations), not all boundary conditions (the others being treated as natural boundary
conditions).
Chapter 7 is an excellent discussion of numerical methods for space-time PDEs (still in
1D). The four main PDEs treated here are the 1D advection equation, the 1D diffusion(heat) equation, the advection-diffusion equation (that a conference speaker once called"the defection-confusion equation" due to its complexities – thanks to Tom Hughes forreminding me) and Burgers' equation. The modified Helmholtz equation also appears,
although it is called throughout "the Helmholtz equation". There is a major difference
between the two, since the modified Helmholtz operator is positive definite, whereas
the Helmholtz operator is indefinite, hence much more difficult for numerical treatment.
Concepts like upwind schemes, the CFL number and stability analysis, Godunov's
theorem about monotonicity, the Riemann problem, and much more, are nicely andsystematically explained.
Chapter 8 is the climax of the book – the moment the reader has prepared for. Finallymulti-D PDEs are discussed. The
first half of the chapter concerns FD
methods in space-time in Cartesianboxes. The second half discusses
CFD in complex geometries, including
body-fitted grids, sharp interface
schemes and immersed boundary
schemes. See Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 3:
Pressure and vorticity ((a) and (b), respectively)
distribution for uniform flow over a sphereat Re=16.7.
This is Fig. 8.6 in the bookFigure 4:
Use of the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM)for the case of a spherical particle in a flow
within a rectangular channel.
The figure shows the distribution of the
Lagrangian markers used for the particle.
This is Figure 8.10(b) in the bookIn summary, this is a very interesting and well written book that is highly recommended.
It is not very broad in its scope, but it is thorough and deep, and does a superb
job in exposing the reader to those areas of CFD focused on here. l
15 iacm expressions 48/21

New
Executive Committee members
UKACM welcomes two new members to the Executive Committee.
•

Dr Chun Hean Lee (Glasgow University) is the new UKACM secretary,replacing Prof Tony Jefferson (Cardiff University).

•

Dr Emilio Martinez-Paneda (Imperial College) is the new UKACM YIC
representative, replacing Dr Will Coombs (Durham University).

UKACM 2021 Conference
The organising committee and the UKACM Executive are working towards the
preparation of the 2021 conference, contemplating a hybrid or fully online approachin case travel restrictions continue to apply. The conference will be organised by
Dr Marco Discacciati, Lecturer at the Department of Mathematical Sciences andmember of the UKACM Executive Committee.

UKACM ResearchHighlight Competition
he effect of the COVID-19 crisis in the organisation of scientific events has
been profound. The UKACM 2020 conference, planned to take place on
April 1-3, 2020 in Loughborough University, was cancelled. As the main remit of
UKACM is to provide a platform for UK PhD students and post-doctoral researchers
to showcase their research, UKACM organised the first Research Highlight
Competition. Participants were asked to submit one slide and a video explaining
their research. A committee of UKACM members selected the following winners:

T

Sanjay KomalaSheshachala,
Swansea University.
Mike Crisfield Prize
for the best researchhighlight (£250)

iacm expressions 48/21 16

for all inclusions under UKACM please contact
Rubén Sevillar.sevilla@swansea.ac.uk

Events sponsored and supported
by UKACM
2020 Zienkiewicz Lecture
On Wednesday 18th November 2020, Swansea University’s College of Engineering
hosted its fourth Zienkiewicz Lecture, supported by UKACM. The guest speaker
was Professor Andy Hopper (Cambridge University) who will deliver a lecture
entitled “Computing for the Future of the Planet”.
A framework for the role of computing in dealing with sustainability of the planet
was presented. The framework has a number of goals: an optimal digital
infrastructure, sensing and optimising the use of resources in the physical world, guaranteeing the performance of indispensable systems, and digital alternatives
to physical activities.
International Conferenceof the Engineering Mechanics Institute
The ASCE engineering mechanics institute international conference planned for April
5-8, 2020 was also cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis. The conference will beorganised in Durham in 2022 and will be sponsored by UKACM. l

Mayank Drolia,
Heriot-Watt University.
Best highlight by apost-graduate ResearchStudent (£100)

In addition, Tim Hageman (Sheffield University) and Kensley Balla (Swansea
University) received a highly commended award for their submissions. l

17 iacm expressions 48/21

uring the past year the Israel Association for Computational Methods in
Mechanics (IACMM) held one symposium. The 47th Israel Symposium on
Computational Mechanics (ISCM-47) was held in Nov 2019 at Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, organized by Drs. Yuri Feldman and Pavel Trapper.

D

The interesting opening lecture was given by the international invited speaker
Prof. Alessandro Reali from the Pavia University in Italy, titled “Isogeometric Analysis:
Advanced modeling and applications with a special focus on shells and laminates”.
Figure 1 shows Prof. Reali lecturing.
The symposium included 12 other lectures, presented by practitioners andresearchers from industry and academia. These lectures spanned a broad
spectrum of computational mechanics topics such as structural topology
optimization, sheet metal forming, inverse problems, immersed boundary methods,
liquid sloshing, biomechanics and more. Mr. Rafi Sela, a PhD student of Dr. Yuri
Feldman from the Department of MechanicalEngineering at Ben-Gurion University was thewinner of the ISCM-47 competition for the best
presentation – the title of his talk was“An extension of the immersed boundary method
based on the distributed Lagrange multiplierapproach: Theory and applications”.
Mr. Sela was also the winner of the combined
ISCM46-ISCM47 best presentation award, andhe will be awarded a $1000 prize for attending aninternational conference on CM. Figure 2 shows
Mr. Sela during his talk, and Figure 3 is a group
photo of the Invited speaker, the IACMM executive
council and the organizers of ISCM-47.
The 48th IACMM Symposium was planned forMarch 2020 at the Technion, organized byProfs. Mahmood Jabareen and Oded Amir andthe international invited lecturer was planned tobe Prof. Sanjay Govindjee of the University ofCalifornia, Berkley.
At the last moment, due to the restrictions
imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, ISCM-48
had to be postponed, and if the situation allows
will be held in 2021. Instead, the IACMM
executive council decided to hold a virtual
workshop with four invited lectures delivered on
Oct 29th, 2020.
This virtual workshop was attended by many andwas very interesting. Prof. Michel Bercovier
delivered a talk titled “Deep Learning andComputational Methods in Mechanics”,

Figure 1:
Prof. Alessandro Reali the invited international lecturer of ISCM-47, Nov 2019, Ben-Gurion University

iacm expressions 48/21 18

for all inclusions under IACMM
please contact
Zohar Yosibash
yosibash@tauex.tau.ac.il

Figure 2:
Mr. Sela,
the winner of the
ISCM-47 competition
for the best presentation,
during his talkProf. Steven Frankel spoke on “Quantum Computing Algorithms for Simulating
Turbulent Flows”, Dr. Gil Marom spoke on “Computational Fluid Dynamics
Models for Leaflet Thrombosis Risk Assessment Post-Transcatheter Aortic
Valve-in-Valve Implantation with Leaflet Laceration” and Prof. Mahmood Jabareen
spoke on “Recent Advances in Finite Elements Formulation for Solids andStructures”. lFigure 3:Group photo of IACMM executive council, international speaker and organizers
of ISCM-47.
Left to Right: M. Engelman, Y. Feldman, J. Tal , Z. Yosibash, P. Trapper,
A. Herszage, A. Reali, I. Harari, E. Priel, D. Givoli and P. Bar-Yoseph

19 iacm expressions 48/21

USNCCM16
Update Regarding
Abstract Submission and Meeting Format
he 16th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics is scheduled
to take place July 25-29, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Abstract submission is
now open until January 15, 2021. While we welcome abstracts in all areas ofcomputational mechanics, we have designated five areas of emphasis for thiscongress. They are Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics; Novel Methods;
Computational Medicine; Materials, Manufacturing, and Optimization; and DataDriven Modeling, Uncertainty Quantification and Machine Learning. Currently
the plan is to hold the congress as a hybrid event. We hope that most will beable to attend in person, but if not, a virtual component will be provided. Further
information and updates may be found at http://16.usnccm.org.

T
Figure 1:
Skyline of Chicago,
location for USNCCM16

Virtual IGA 2020
Due the postponement of IGA 2020, USACM held its first virtual conference, VIGA
2020, August 11-12, 2020, with over 250 registered. The conference consistedof eight invited talks over two days, an industrial panel, and several breakout
sessions to discuss approximately 30 contributed pre-recorded video talks fromparticipants. A repository is being maintained of the invited speaker talks as well as
the contributed talks for those who attended. These are available to those who did
not attend by completing the online post-conference registration at
iga2020.usacm.org/registration.

USACM Female Research GroupThe USACM Female Research Group (FRG) has been formed to promote genderbalance among the US computational mechanics community and to provide a
supportive network for female researchers. USACM-FRG is an affiliate of IACMFRC. The first networking event took place on August 12, immediately following
the conclusion of VIGA 2020. The online event included speakers Professor Elaine
Cohen (University of Utah) and Stefanie Elgeti (Vienna University of Technology).
For more information about the FRG and its activities, visit frgusacm.org. l

iacm expressions 48/21 20

for all inclusions under USACM please contact
admin@usacm.org

USACM Summer
Seminar Series
During June-July, 2020 USACM hosted a series of virtual seminars presented byjunior faculty members of USACM. Each talk was approximately 40 minutes inlength, with ample time for questions and answers. Below is a list of the seminars
presented. All seminars are recorded and links to the videos may be found athttps://usacm.org/seminar-series.
June 11

June 17
June 25
July 1

July 16

July 23

Dr. Adrian Buganza Tepole, Purdue University,
Predictive Models of Skin Through the Integration of Machine Learning
and Computational Mechanics
Dr. Steve WaiChing Sun, Columbia University,
Some Applications of Graph Theory in Data-Driven Multiscale Mechanics
Dr. John Evans, University of Colorado at Boulder,
Data-Driven Turbulence Modeling and Simulation: From RANS to LES
Dr. Pania Newell, University of Utah,
Examining Fracture Behavior in Heterogeneous Poro-elastic Mediarom Nano to Macro-scale
Dr. Kai James, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Topology Optimization of Self-Actuating Shape-Memory Polymer
Mechanisms
Dr. Manuel Rausch, University of Texas at Austin,
Image- and Experiment-based Modeling of the Forgotten Right Side:
Right Ventricle, Tricuspid Valve, and Venous Blood Clot

New Technical Thrust Areas (TTA) Formed
USACM announces the formation of two new Technical Thrust Areas in 2020.
TTA – Data-Driven Modeling
Chair: Ellen Kuhl, Stanford University
Vice-Chair: Assad Oberai, University of Southern California
Members-at-Large: Alireza Doostan, University of Colorado, Boulder
Paris Perdikaris, University of Pennsylvania
TTA – Modeling and Simulation of Infectious Diseases
Chair: Tarek Zohdi, University of California, Berkeley
Vice-Chair: Ellen Kuhl, Stanford University
Members-at-Large: Thomas J.R. Hughes and J.T. Oden,
University of Texas at Austin
For information on these and other TTAs, go to https://www.usacm.org/ttas. l

USACM Upcoming Events
further details at usacm.orgmmmm

16th National Congress on Computational Mechanics, July 25-29, 2021; Chicago, Illinois;
http://16.usnccm.org
New Trends and Open Challenges in Computational Mechanics: from Nano to Macroscale,(virtual event), March 25-26, 2021
Meshfree and Novel Finite Elements with Applications, September 25-27, 2022; Berkeley, California;
http://16.usnccm.org
Isogeometric Analysis 2020, November 6-9, 2022; Banff, Canada;
http://iga2020.usacm.org. l

21 iacm expressions 48/21

Priority Programme Related to GACM by
the German Research Foundation (DFG)
particular feature of the Priority Programme is the nationwide collaboration
between its participating researchers. The DFG Senate may establish Priority
Programmes when the coordinated support given to the area in question promises
to produce particular scientific gain. As a rule, Priority Programmes receive funding
for a period of six years.” [http://www.dfg.de/en]“A

Priority Programme DFG SPP 2311:
Robust Coupling of Continuum-biomechanical In Silico Models to Establish
Active Biological System Models for Later Use in Clinical Applications Co-design of Modelling, Numerics and Usability

In healthcare, computational (in silico) models can contribute to obtain more specificdiagnosis and individualized treatment of diseases. However, this potential is still
barely exploited, because biological units such as muscles or organs have so far
been viewed mainly in isolated functions, scales or areas. A new DFG Priority
Programme now aims to couple the so far isolated models in order to better
understand and predict the complex interactions between structures and scales
as well as their functions and sub-functions.

Figure 1:
Research fields of SPP 2311

In this context, the new founded DFG Priority Programme (SPP 2311) creates aninterdisciplinary network that focuses on the research of new methodologicalapproaches to coupling several computational models and considers their
physiological functions in a three-dimensional view based on continuum mechanicaldescriptions. Their aim is tofurther develop the existing
methodological foundations as
key qualifications and, thus,
enable the generation of robust
biomechanical models.
Although the project does notreach the phase of clinicalstudies, it aims to create aplatform for the qualification of
biomechanical simulation
models for later use in clinicalpractice.
Speaker:Prof. Oliver Röhrle,
PhD, Universität Stuttgart
Co-speaker:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tim Ricken,
Universität Stuttgart
Further Program Committee:
Prof. Dr. med. habil. Dipl.-Ing.
Rainer Bader,
Universitätsmedizin Rostock
Dr.-Ing. Silvia Budday, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Prof. Dr. Axel Klawonn, Universität zu Köln
Homepage: https://www.spp2311.uni-stuttgart.de/ l

iacm expressions 48/21 22

for all inclusions under gacm please contact:
Michael Kaliske
gacm@mailbox.tu-dresden.de

GACM Related Research Training Group by
the German Research Foundation (DFG)
esearch Training Groups are established by universities to promote early career
researchers. They are funded by the DFG for a period of up to nine years.
Their key emphasis is on the qualification of doctoral researchers within the frameworkof a focused research programme and a structured training strategy.”[http://www.dfg.de/en]“R

International Research Training Group (IRTG) DFG GRK 2078:
Integrated engineering of continuous-discontinuous long fiber reinforced
polymer structures (CoDiCoFRP)The DFG-GRK 2078 research project located at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT) has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since 2015.
This international consortium consists of several academic partners and research
institutes in Germany and Canada accompanied by two local industrial advisoryboards. The IRTG is thematically clustered in the four research areas Technology,
Characterization, Simulation and Design. The core research idea is to establish
integrated engineering strategies for materials science of polymer-based materials,
multi-scale and multi-physics simulations, process technology, and productdevelopment. In this context, interdisciplinary research approaches for material
design, structure and process optimization along with aspects of material
characterization as well as quality control in manufacturing of continuousdiscontinuous fiber-reinforced polymer (CoDiCoFRP) structures are developed. The
joint work of all projects aims at establishing a real and multi-scale virtual process
chain representing the entire process from material development and pressing
process to the final component, by corresponding simulations. Furthermore, based
upon the virtual process chain, the real process chain shall be improved. By taking
advantage of the complementary competencies and research expertise in the IRTG,
an efficiently structured scientific education of doctoral candidates in the strategicallyimportant, but not fully developed, field of CoDiCoFRP structures is guaranteed.
This ensures a continuous transfer of scientific findings to industrial applications andcontributes to a strong link to national industries. In 2019, the outcome of the first
generation has been published as a book, titled as Continuous – Discontinuous
Fiber-Reinforced Polymers: An Integrated Engineering Approach, Hanser Verlag.
After the positive evaluation in 2019, currently 14 doctoral researchers and 1
PostDoc of the second generation of the project are jointly supervised by principal
investigators from Germany and Canada. Additionally, several associated doctoral
researchers and PostDocs at the different institutes are active in this new field andindicate the strong and lasting effect of this IRTG on research as well as on teachingespecially in the KIT-faculty of mechanical engineering.
Speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Böhlke, Institute of Engineering Mechanics, KIT
Co-speaker: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Henning, Institute of Vehicle System Technology,
KIT, and Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology, Pfinztal
Speaker of Canadian partners: Prof. Jeffrey T. Wood,
University of Western Ontario
Academic Director: Dr.-Ing. Tom-Alexander Langhoff,
Institute of Engineering Mechanics, KIT

Figure 2:
Manufactured demonstrator
part of 1st IRTG generation [1]Figure 3:
3D CAD model of thedemonstrator part of 2nd IRTG
generation withextruded ribs andbeads [2]Homepage: https://www.grk2078.kit.edu
List of publications:
http://www.grk2078.kit.edu/publications.php l[1] Böhlke, T., Henning, F., Hrymak, A. N., Kärger, L.,
Weidenmann, K., Wood, J. T.: Continuous-Discontinuous
Fiber-Reinforced Polymers. An Integrated Engineering Approach. Hanser Fachbuchverlag (2019)[2] Picture provided by Thilo Richter (IRTG project D3)

23 iacm expressions 48/21

Renewal of

SEMNI Executive Board
fter the elections held last October 16th, 2020, a new executive board has been
formed. A new member has been elected, Prof. Xesús Nogueira (Universidadeda Coruña). Other members have been re-elected, such as Profs. Irene Arias,
Joan Baiges and Antonio Huerta (Polytechnic University of Catalonia), Ignacio
Romero (Polytechnic University of Madrid) and Ignasi Colominas (Universidadeda Coruña). Only one half of the members of the board were subject to renewal,
so the rest of the members will continue until the end of their term in 2022. Theyare Profs. Rena Yu, Juan José Ródenas, Francisco Montáns and Riccardo Rossi.
Prof. Elías Cueto has been re-elected as president for the term 2021-2024. As
past-presidents, Profs. Eugenio Oñate, Manuel Casteleiro and Xavier Oliver will
also continue serving in the board.

A

The president, Prof. Elías Cueto, gratefully acknowledged the valuable work andgenerous dedication of the member that now leaves the board: Prof. Fermín
Navarrina (Universidade da Coruña), who served in the board during the last 27
years! l
Figure 1:(1st row) Irene Arias,
Elias Cueto, Xesús Nogueira,
Manuel Casteleiro(2nd) Pedro Díez,
Xavier Oliver, Rena Yu,
Juan J. Ródenas,(3rd) Ignacio Romero,
David Greiner, Eugenio Oñate,(absent) Fermín Navarrina(4th) (absent) Francisco
Montans, Antonio Huerta(receiving congratulations forhis just-announced prize)

SEMNI O. C. Zienkiewicz award 2020
he highest distinction provided biennially by SEMNI to personalities in the fieldof numerical methods in engineering is the O. C. Zienkiewicz prize. In thisoccasion, the award goes to Prof. Antonio Huerta, from the Polytechnic
University of Barcelona.

T

Prof. Huerta is a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering,president of IACM and a renowned specialist in the field of numerical methods.
Prof. Huerta, whose work within the Spanish Society for Numerical Methods isthus acknowledged by our community, will receive a diploma and a plaque during
the gala dinner of the next Conference on Numerical Methods, CMN, to be heldin Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2022. l
iacm expressions 48/21 24

for all inclusions under SEMNI please contact
Elias Cueto
ecueto@unizar.es

SEMNI and APMTAC
postpone their biennial joint conference
iven the actual circumstances of the pandemic due to the COVID-19 disease,
SEMNI, along with its sister Portuguese association, APMTAC, have agreed
to defer the conference, that would have taken place next July 2021, and postpone
it to September 12-14th 2022, thus avoiding coincidence with existing and wellstablished ECCOMAS and IACM conferences.

G

More info from https://congress.cimne.com/cmn2022/frontal/default.asp l

SEMNI Juan C. Simó award 2020
EMNI has awarded its annual Juan C. Simó prize during its last executive
meeting. The awardee will receive his prize during the gala dinner ceremonyof the joint Spanish-Portuguese Conference on Numerical Methods, CMN, to beheld in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria next 2022.

S

SEMNI’s prize to young researchers commemorates the legacy of the late Prof.
Juan C. Simó in the field of numerical methods. The committee was formed inthis occasion by Profs. P. Díez (president), Ferdinando Auricchio, Fredrik Larsson,
Thierry J. Massart, and Francisco Chinesta.
In this occasion, the awardee is prof. Emilio Martínez Pañeda, (Imperial College
London), for his contributions to nonlinear solid mechanics with emphasis on
applications to fracture mechanics in different fields of engineering sciences.
The Committee has valued the breadth of his research activities and the variety
and extent of his national and international research collaborations. l
25 iacm expressions 48/21

Report from theJapan Association
for Computational Mechanic
he JACM is a union of researchers and engineers working in the field ofcomputational mechanics mainly in Japan. JACM is a loosely coupled umbrellaorganization covering 29 computational mechanics related societies in Japanthrough communication with e-mail and web page (https://ja-cm.org/index-e.html).
The number of individual members is about 330. JACM members actively participate
in the IACM activities.

T

The ONLINE 2020 JACM Annual Meeting was held in the evening of July 2020.
It was originally scheduled to be held in conjunction with the WCCM2020, but
due to the cancellation of WCCM2020, it was held ONLINE on the scheduled date.
JACM executive members used a virtual background with the Eiffel Tower (Figure 4),
the symbol of Paris, which was the planned venue for WCCM2020.
The meeting started at 17:00 on 22th July and 45 members participated themeeting. Hiroshi Okada, President, JACM reported the past activities of JACM.
The report included the present number of members, executive members, affiliatedsocieties, mini-symposium proposals for IACM related conferences by the JACM
members, WCCM 2022, some future plans,
etc. Then, the award ceremony followed.
In the award ceremony, each awardee wasintroduced.

(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1:
Computational Mechanics Award:(a) Prof. Hideyuki Azegami (Nagoya Univ.), (b) Prof. Daigoro Isobe (Univ. of Tsukuba) and(c) Dr. Hirofumi Tomita (RIKEN)

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
Figure 2:
Fellows Award:(a) Prof. Yuichi Tadano (Saga Univ.), (b) Prof. Fei Xu Northwestern Polytech. Univ.), (c) Prof. Ryosuke Matsumoto(Kyoto Univ. of Adv. Sci.), (d) Prof. Tomoshi Miyamura (Nihon Univ.) and (e) Prof. Yoshitaka Wada (Kindai Univ.)
iacm expressions 487/21 26

For all inclusions under JACM news please contact:
Hiroshi Okada
jim@ja-cm.org

In 2020, The JACM Computational
Mechanics Awards which are the highest
awards were presented to Profs. Hideyuki
Azegami (Nagoya Univ.), Daigoro Isobe
(Univ. of Tsukuba) and Hirofumi Tomita(RIKEN) (Figure 1). The JACM Fellows
Awards were presented to Profs. Yuichi
Tadano (Saga Univ.), Fei Xu (Northwestern
Polytech. Univ.), Ryosuke Matsumoto(Kyoto Univ. of Adv. Sci.), Tomoshi
Miyamura (Nihon Univ.) and Yoshitaka
Wada (Kindai Univ.) (Figure 2). The JACM
Young Investigator Award were
presented to Profs. Yoshitaka Kameo(Kyoto Univ.), Takashi Kuraishi (Rice Univ.)
and Kazuki Shibanuma (UTokyo) (Figure 3).

(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 3:
JACM Award for Young Investigators in Computational Mechanics(a) Prof. Yoshitaka Kameo (Kyoto Univ.), (b) Dr. Takashi Kuraishi(Rice Univ.) and (c) Prof. Kazuki Shibanuma (UTokyo)

After the ceremony, the award winners gave
short speeches. The JACM meeting ended with a photosession using zoom (Figure 5). lFigure 4:
Virtual background with the Eiffel Tower

Figure 5:
A photo of the 2020 JACM annual meeting participaints
27 iacm expressions 48/21

Toward an Attractive Academic Societythat can Respond to Various Changes
he The Japan Society for Computational Engineering and Science (JSCES)
was established in 1995, after the success of the 3rd World Congress ofComputational Mechanics (1994, Chiba, Japan) (WCCM III). This year, we arecelebrating its 25th anniversary.

T

At present, the number of members of the JSCES is gradually increasing, while
the decrease in number of members is a big issue for most of academic societies.
The JSCES has carried out many other activities to promote the computational
engineering and science. For example, Short Courses, Summer Camp and
Seminars are regularly provided. The Research Committee of JSCES operates
Study Groups for HQC (High Quality Computing), PSE (Problem Solving
Environment), Hypercomplex Disaster Simulation, Uncertainty Modeling and
Simulation, Education of Computational Mechanics, and Automobile Structural
Model-Based Development, to exchange information among the members andcooperation between academia and industries.

COMPSAFE2020(December 8-11, 2020)
Kobe, Japan
he 3rd International Conference on Computational Engineering and Science for
Safety and Environmental Problems (COMPSAFE2020), which is an APACM
Thematic Conference and an IACM Special Interest Conference, was held fully
online.

T

There were 326 registered participants and 254 presentations in minisymposia.
4 plenary lectures by Prof. J. Westerink (Univ. of Notre Dame), Prof. M. Papadrakakis(National Technical Univ. of Athens), Prof. S. Koshizuka (The Univ. of Tokyo),Prof. M. Tsubokura (RIKEN R-CCS/Kobe Univ.) and 10 semi-plenary lectures were
given. To operate the online presentations with Zoom, members of the Local
Organizing/Arrangement Committees gathered at an operation room set up in the
RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS).

iacm expressions 48/21 28

Junji Kato
junjikato@nagoya-u.jp

Furthermore, the JSCES has hosted the 3rd International Conference on
Computational Engineering and Science for Safety and Environmental Problems(COMPSAFE2020) with JACM (Japan Association for Computational Mechanics)
during 8-11 December, 2020, which was held fully online.
Computational engineering and mechanics are applied in various fields as usefultechnologies and methods, and also as a way of thinking, in the cyber space of the
CPS (Cyber-Physical System) field in cooperation with mathematical information
science and data analysis in major movements such as SDGs, AI, and IoT, andtechnological changes and evolution. Also, as seen in the recent unpredictablephenomena such as COVID-19, a computational engineering approach that takes
advantage of the characteristics of analysis and synthesis may act greatly in therelationship between humans, society, nature, information and mechanical systems.
One of the roles that the JSCES should play is to drive research, technologicaldevelopment, and dissemination awareness that meet such social demands.
Therefore, we would like to discuss a way to evolve computational engineering forthe coming era and a way to lay foundation for innovative changes, with the parties
concerned.

The conference has become the largest
in number of registered participants in
the COMPSAFE series and was
successfully closed with the plenary talkby Prof. Tsubokura, in which the
droplet/aerosol infection simulation
against COVID-19 was presented toevaluate the infection risk together
with “Safety”.

29 iacm expressions 48/21

In Memory ofProf. Raffaele Casciaro

Gruppo Italiano di
Meccanica Computazionale

t is with profound sadness that we share the news that Prof. Raffaele Casciaro
passed away on 27 July 2020. He is buried in his beloved Rossano, a small city insoutheast Italy, where he was born in 1943.

I

After a short research period in Rome ``La Sapienza'', where he earned his master
degree in civil engineering (1967), he moved to the University of Calabria (UNICAL)
where he spent his entire academic career life.
His scientific interests, since the early 1970s, were focused on computational
mechanics. Raffaele foresaw the great potential of computational mechanics which,he believed, have played a key role in structural analysis and in the related research
activities. Based on his belief, he became one of the pioneers and founders of the
Italian Group of Computational Mechanics.

Figure 1:
A recent picture of Raffaele

Raffaele was an outstanding Italian researcher of his time. His scientific activities
have always been aimed at developing structural models and numerical methods for
simulating the mechanical behavior of structures. In doing that he firmly believedthat research must be driven by practical problems. His scientific contributions havecovered variety of topics: limit and shakedown analysis, structural dynamics, nonlinear
analysis of slender structures prone to buckle, modeling of geotechnical problems,solution algorithms for nonlinear problems, nonlinear structural models and their finite
element formulations, multigrid methods, modeling of masonry and reinforced concrete
structures.
His initial work, which already shows some of the ideas that would have inspired
Raffaele's more mature scientific contributions, began in the early 1970s. This
period can be considered as the “Stone Age” of the computer revolution in structural
mechanics. Among his first works, it is worth note to remember those on limit analysisof plates reformulated as a min-max problem using mixed finite elements in which
both stresses and displacements are interpolated. The use of direct methods for thesolution of limit analysis (and shakedown) problems and the advantages of using
mixed finite elements in plasticity are topics that Raffaele deeply investigated in thefollowing years with notable scientific contributions.
In the late 1970s, at a conference, Raffaele met Eduard Riks with whom he establisheda relationship of mutual respect and friendship. Inspired by Riks' work, Raffaele started
studying plasticity and other nonlinear problems using incremental arc-length methods.
The arc-length formulation for the analysis of slender structures was significantly
strengthened by a proposal of Raffaele and his coworkers of the late 1990s, which was
highly appreciated by Riks himself. In that work, the use of a mixed description instress and displacement is proposed, where stresses are taken as primary variables inboth the predictor and corrector states of the iterative scheme. Moreover, the Riks
path-following analysis was generalized, years afterwards, by other important researchcontributions of Raffaele. Among the others, it was adopted as a strategy for solving
the optimization problem deriving from the static shakedown theorem and for handlingthe unstable static response of softening materials in masonry walls.

A list of publication isavailable on
Researchgate
A commemorative notefor Raffaele
Meccanica

iacm expressions 48/21 30

In the late 1970s he started working on a mile-stone of his research activity, namely thefinite element implementation of Koiter's theory of elastic stability. Raffaele had followed some of Koiter's lectures which had had a deep impact on him. He immediately
foresaw the potentialities of a finite element formulation of this theory for designing
slender structures prone to buckle. It resulted into an innovative tool able to efficiently
estimate the initial post-critical behavior of elastic slender structures taking into accountthe imperfection sensitivity also in case of almost coincident buckling loads. In the subsequent years Raffaele and his research group developed the method into a consolidated analysis and design tool.

for all inclusions under GIMC please contact
Sonia Marfia
sonia.marfia@uniroma3.it
Finally, throughout his career life, Raffaele gave a large contribution to developing
methods and algorithms for seismic analysis and design of reinforced concrete andmasonry structures. These works, many of them unfortunately never published,inspired many of his students and collaborators to found software houses in Calabria,
which directly uses Raffaele's efficient algorithms.
Raffaele loved working with other people, especially with young researchers.
He used to spend many hours in programming, working side by side withmaster or PhD students. He truly believed that this was the correct way toquickly transfer knowledge he had acquired over the years to younger
researchers, allowing them to deal with complex problems. The exchangeof views and ideas, often carried out through long technical discussions infront of a blackboard, was for him the most effective way to advance theresearch process, which benefited from his brilliant intuition. Youngresearchers loved him because of his profound generosity, his nevergiving up and the support he gave to everyone in facing the difficulties.
Intelligence and intuition were the best Raffaele's qualities. His capacity
to deeply explore new topics in a few minutes, after short technicaldiscussions or presentations, was impressive and amazing at the same time.
He had the ability to eliminate, from a complex problem, all the redundant details,
thereby focusing on its main logical scheme.

Figure 2:
Raffaele and J.N. Reddy

Raffaele left a memorable mark on the Italian community of Computational Mechanics.
University was his home for almost his entire life, the place where he followed his
passion for doing high level research and creating a group of researchers whoshared this purpose.
Figure 3:
Figure 4:
Raffaele at a GIMC conference
Raffaele and L.A. Godoy at a GIMC conference

Deadline for abstracts submissions is 31st January 2021

31 iacm expressions 48/21

n November 16-19, 2020, the Brazilian Association for Computational Methods inEngineering (ABMEC) promoted the 42nd edition of CILAMCE, the Ibero-LatinAmerican Congress on Computational Methods in Engineering. Due to the COVID-19
pandemic, the congress was held for the first time in virtual mode, being organizedby the Federal University of the Latin American Integration, from Foz do Iguaçu,
under the chair of Prof. Aref Kzam. Despite the enormous challenge in organizing a
conference in this exceptional year, CILAMCE-2020 was a tremendous success inall respects. We had over 640 participants from all parts of Brazil and Latin America,
plus a few other colleagues from farther abroad. This truly expresses the very spiritof CILAMCE. The congress took place within a virtual platform that was especiallydesigned for CILAMCE-2020, into which the participants
could log in and feel inside a virtual foyer, being able tobrowse from there through the main virtual auditorium andseveral mini-symposium virtual rooms. We also organized avirtual cocktail on the evening of November 18, to enable amore relaxed environment for the participants to keep intouch with old friends – many of whom we only have thechance to meet once in a year, during CILAMCE.

O

Figure 1:
CILAMCE-2020,
virtual foyer

On November 17, we held ABMEC´s 2020 General Assembly meeting, also for
the first time in virtual mode. On the occasion, the official website of CILAMCEPANACM-2021 (https://cilamce-panacm2021.com.br) was launched. Also, weformally approved the bid from our colleagues Prof. Renato N. Jorge andProf. Rui Calçada to organize the CILAMCE-2023 in Porto, Portugal. We are very
excited for these two upcoming editions of CILAMCE and take this opportunity toinvite all IACM members and enthusiasts of computational mechanics alike toparticipate in both events. We hope to see many of you there!
During the General Assembly meeting, we have sanctioned the election of our new
Board of Directors, including our new President, Prof. Felício B. Barros, as well as halfof our Executive Council members. They will be in duty from January 1, 2021, up to
December 31, 2022 (Directors) and December 31, 2024 (Executive Council members).

Warmest regards
from the tropics,
Prof. Eduardo M. B. Campello
ABME President
until 31 December 2020
Prof. Felício B. Barros
ABMEC Vice-President
until 31 December 2020
Liang-Yee Cheng
ABMEC Treasurer
until 31 December 2020
André T. Beck
ABMEC First Secretary
until 31 December 2020
Henrique C. Gomes
ABMEC Second Secretary
until 31 December 2020

iacm expressions 48/21 32

The newly elected are:Board of Directors (from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022):
Felício B. Barros, President
Roque L. S. Pitangueira, Vice-President
Lapo Gori, Treasurer
Darlan Karlo Elisiário de Carvalho, First Secretary
Marcos Arndt, Second Secretary
Executive Council members (from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024):
Eduardo M. B. Campello, Gray F. Moita, José Luís D. Alves, Paulo M. Pimenta,
Paulo R. M. Lyra, André T. Beck (substitute) and Christianne L. Nogueira (substitute)
We take this opportunity to thank all ABMEC members for the strong support during
the course of the last four years, in which we have been proudly in charge of ABMEC.
We restored ABMEC´s fiscal and financial situations, and this would not have beenpossible without such support. Also, we organized four very successful editions of
CILAMCE, including one in France for the first time (Paris/Compiègne, in 2018) and
one in virtual mode this year, also for the first time. We have seen the number of ourassociates raise from 120 to nearly 300 (effective members), and to roughly 700 if we
consider our student members. We are very proud of the vibrant computational
mechanics community in Brazil. On behalf of ABMEC, we would like to stress our
gratitude and honor in serving the Association during the past four years, and send thebest of our wishes to the newly elected Directors and Executive Council members.
We hope 2021 will be a better year to us all!

for all inclusions under ABMEC please contact
Eduardo Campellocampello@usp.br

33 iacm expressions 48/21

WCCM-ECCOMAS Congressor the first time in the history of joint WCCM-ECCOMAS congresses, the next
WCCM-ECCOMAS Congress will take place in a digital version, fromJanuary 11 to 15, 2021.

F

The organization is handled by the French associations:•
CSMA: Computational Structural Mechanics Association•
AFM: French Mechanical Association•
SMAI: French Association of Applied and Industrial Mathematics•GAMNI: Group for Numerical Methods in Engineering with the support of
the German associations:•
GACM: German association for Computational Mechanics•
GAMM: International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics
The platform of the congress will allow to follow pre-recorded talks corresponding to morethan 2,500 papers. All the contributed presentations will be accessible for all the participants
one week before and two weeks after the conference. All the participants will be able tovirtually wander through the sessions (as well as the plenaries and semi-plenaries as soon
as they are recorded) at their own convenience and at the time that suits them best.
Special events will also be organized during the conference: Woman Chapter, PhD ECCOMAS
Olympiads, ECCOMAS Young Investigators Activities…
In order to maintain the main features that have contributed to the scientific success andconviviality of the previous WCCM-ECCOMAS congresses, facilities will be provided tooffer many opportunities for rich and inspiring moments of exchanges and discussions:live-discussions, round tables, networking, …
The organizers have done their utmost to make this very special congress a success!
Chairmen of the conference:

Local organizing committee:
Rémi Abgrall: UZH Zurich
Olivier Allix: ENS Paris-Saclay
Delphine Brancherie: Université de technologie de Compiègne
Francisco (Paco) Chinesta: ENSAM
Olivier Fandeur: CEA
Luc Laurent: CNAMDavid Néron: ENS Paris-Saclay
Cécile Oliver-Leblond: ENS Paris-Saclay
Guillaume Puel: CentraleSupélec l
iacm expressions 48/21 34

for all inclusions under CSMA please contact
David Néron
david.neron@ens-paris-saclay.fr

35 iacm expressions 48/21

In Memoriam
Fernando Basombrío
April 13, 1939 – Aug 9, 2020

t is not easy to say goodbye to Fernando Basombrío, to get used to the ideathat he is no longer with us. Fernando has been a fundamental piece in the
Bariloche Atomic Center (CAB) and the Balseiro Institute (IB), at Bariloche,
Argentinian Patagonia.

I

Fernando graduated as a Surveyor in 1962 and as a Civil Engineer in 1963 at
the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
From 1963 to 1967, he was a lecturer at UBA as well as at the National
University of Technology (UTN) at Buenos Aires. Then, until 1969, he was at
the Poincaré Institute (University of Paris). After that, he returned to Argentina
and worked at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of UBA until 1975, when hemoved to CAB. There, he met colleagues like Gustavo Sánchez Sarmiento,
Sergio Pissanetzky and Bibiana Cruz, who shared his interest in numericalsimulations, giving raise to the small group that was the seed of today’s
Department of Computational Mechanics (MECOM) at CAB.
From 1980 to 1982 he visited the Institute for Materials and Physics of Solids(IMF III) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Nuclear Technology, Germany.
Back in Argentina in 1983, he became a researcher of the National Council for
Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET-Argentina). He continued his
lectures on “Continuum Mechanics” at IB, where his mathematically elegant andrigorous notes, continuously improved, are unforgettable. In 1989, he became afull professor at IB and, in 2001, an honorary professor at the National Universityof Cuyo, Argentina.
He obtained his PhD in 1993 at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba under thetutorship of Prof. Luis Godoy. In August 1994, he was elected as member for
AMCA in the General Council of IACM. In 2008, he received the AMCA award
for teaching, professional and scientific career in Argentina.
Fernando was one of the pioneers of Computational Mechanics inArgentina, founding and honorary member of the Argentine Association for
Computational Mechanics (AMCA). He organized the first meetings of finite
element method users in 1982 and 1983 in Bariloche, seed of the Argentinian
Conferences on Computational Mechanics (ENIEF/MECOM), today at their
37th annual edition.
Fernando has left a strong mark on CAB, and not only from a professional pointof view but also from the human perspective. A lot of people at CAB are indebted to him and will always keep him in their hearts, trying to follow his example
and to honour his memory.
CAB, IB and AMCA join his family and colleagues in saying goodbye to a goodfriend. lFigure 1:
Fernando Basombrío
receiving AMCA Award 2008
iacm expressions 48/21 36

Adapted from a note sent
by Fernando Quintana
to AMCA’s bulletinfor all inclusions under AMCA please contact
Pablo A. Kler
kler@cimec.santafe-conicet.gov.ar

AMCA Awards 2020
AMCA executive board is pleased to announce AMCA Awards 2020 winners:•
The AMCA Young Resercher Award 2020 was granted to Juan Marcelo Giménez from
CIMEC at Universidad Nacional del Litoral and CONICET, Argentina.
•
The AMCA Award 2020 for Scientific, Professional and Teaching Trajectory was granted to Bibiana Luccioni
from Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología at Universidad Nacional de Tucumán and CONICET,
Argentina.
•
The AMCA Award 2020 for International Scientific Trajectory was granted to Sergio Oller from
Universidad Nacional de Salta and CONICET, Argentina, and CIMNE, Spain.
Due to the re-schedule of the XXXVII Argentine Congress on Computational Mechanics, the AMCA Awards 2020l
Ceremony will be held next year during the Congress dinner.
Figure 2:
Juan Marcelo Giménez,winner of the AMCA Young
Resercher Award 2020

MECOM 2021
XXXVII Argentine Congress on Computational Mechanics
Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina.
Dear AMCA Members,
We like to inform you that the thirty-seventh edition of the Argentine Congress of Computational Mechanics,
which should have taken place in November 2020, will be celebrated from 2nd to 4th November 2021. At thismoment, we can not ensure the modality of the Congress (partial or completely virtual) given the changing status
regarding SARS-CoV-2, but every new information will be posted at theCongress’ website: https://amcaonline.org.ar/mecom2021.
We hope we can count once again on your support and with your distinguishedpresence. We will remain available to answer any questions that you may havein the future.
Best regards,
Dr. Ing. Javier Mroginski
Dr. Ing. Guillermo Castro
Organizing Committee President
Scientific Committee President
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Argentine Association for Computational Mechanics (AMCA) announces the
XXXVII Argentine Congress for Computational Mechanics (MECOM 2021),
which will be held at Resistencia, Argentina, organized by the Faculty ofEngineering of the National University of the Northeast (UNNE) and AMCA.
http://amcaonline.org.ar/mecom2021 l
37 iacm expressions 48/21

conference diary planner
13 - 16 Oct 2020 MuSMe2020 - 7th International Symposium on Multibody Systems and Mechatronics
Venue:

Córdoba, Argentina

Contact:

https://amcaonline.org.ar/

Contact:

ruth@usacm.org

6 - 10 Nov 2020 IGA2020 - Isogeometric Analysis 2020
Venue:

Banff, Canada

16 - 19 Nov 2020 XLI CILAMCE - XLI Ibero-Latin-American Congress on Computational Methods in Engineering
Venue:

ON-LINE

Contact:

www.cilamce.com.br

30 Nov - 2 Dec 2020 AfriComp - African Conference on Computational Mechanics
Venue:

Cape Town, South Africa

Contact:

https://africomp2020.org/

8 - 11 Dec 2020 COMSAFE 2020 - Computational Engineering & Science for Safety & Environmental Problems
Venue:

ON-LINE

Contact:

https://www.compsafe2020.org/

11 - 15 Jan 2021 WCCM-ECCOMAS - 14th World Congress in Computational Mechanics & ECCOMAS Congress
Venue:

ON-LINE

Contact:

https://www.wccm-eccomas2020.org

1 - 5 March 2021 CSE21 - SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering
Venue:

Fort Worth, Texas US

Contact:

Siam.org/Conferences/CM/conference/cse21

2 - 4 June 2021 Marine 2021 - International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering
Venue:

Edinburgh, Scotland

Contact:

https://congress.cimne.com/marine2021/

13 - 16 June 2021 COUPLED 2021 – 1X International Conference on Coupled Problems in Science & Engineering
Venue:

Sardinia, Italy

Contact:

https://congress.cimne.com/Coupled2021/th

21 - 23 June 2021 COMPDYN 2021 - 8 International Conference on Computational Methods in Structural
Dynamics & Earthquake Engineering
UNCECOMP 2021 – 4th International Conference on Uncertainty Quantification in
Computational Sciences & Engineering
Venue:

Athens, GreeceContact:

https://2021.compdyn.org/

21 - 23 June 2021 ADMOS 2021 – X International Conference on Adaptive Modeling and Simulation
Venue:

Gothenburg, Sweden

Contact:

https://congress.cimne.com/ADMOS2021/

27 - 30 June 2021 CSME 2021 - Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering International Congress
Venue:Charlottetown, PEI

Contact:

https://www.csmecongress.org/

th25 - 29 July 2021 USNCCM16 - 16 U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics
Venue:

Chicago, Illinois

Contact:

http://16.usnccm.org/

22 - 27 Aug 2021 25th ICTAM - International Conference of Theroetical and Applied Mechanics
Venue:

Milan, Italy

Contact:

http://www.icta,2020.org/

7 - 10 Sept 2021 COMPLAS 2021 XVI International Conference on Computational Plasticity
Venue:

Barcelona, Spain

Contact:

https://congress.cimne.com/complas2021/

13 - 15 Sept 2021 Structural Membranes 2021 – X International Conference on Textime Composites andInflatable Structures
Venue:

Munich, Germany

Contact:

https://congress.cimne.com/Membranes2021/

22 - 27 Aug 2021 IUTAM Symposium on Computational fracture mechanics in multi-field problems
Venue:

Milan, Italy

Contact:

https://iutam.org/

4 - 6 Oct 2021 PARTICLES 2021 – VI International Conference on Particle-based Methods
Venue:

Hamburg, Germany

Contact:

https://congress.cimne.com/Particles2021/

st17 - 21 Oct 2021 21 International Symposium on Finite Element Methods in Flow Problems
Venue:

Hangzhou, China

Contact:

https://iacm.info/scientific-events/fef/

6 - 9 Nov 2022 USACM Thematic Conference - Isogeometric Analysis 2020
Venue:

iacm expressions 26/10 38

Banff, Canada

Contact:

http://iga2020.usacm.org/