ESI’s 2nd Fracture Seminar Declared a Success

ESI Group: ISIN FR0004110310

The 2^nd Fracture Seminar, a two-day expert training course on fracture and damage modeling, took place on May 17-18, 2010 in Munich, Germany. It offered attendees a variety of advanced lectures on new developments and modeling approaches for fracture in metallic and non-metallic materials.

Lecturers were prominent research authorities, such as Professor Jean-Baptiste Leblond (Member of the Académie des Sciences, Professor at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France), Dr. Carel Ten-Horn (Corus Research Development & Technology, The Netherlands), Dr. Alastair Johnson (German Aerospace Institute – DLR), Dr. Masahiro Fujii (Ube Industries Ltd., Japan) and Stéphane Chapuliot (AREVA NP Expert, France). An intimate setting allowed for much interaction and exchange between the speakers and the 24 delegates, who joined the seminar from more than 17 companies and academic institutions in 7 different countries.

"The Fracture Seminar was a well organized seminar with lectures perfectly aligned,” declared Dr. Carel Ten-Horn, Principal Researcher at Corus Research Development & Technology. "The seminar covered both modeling and experimental issues with damage and fracture of metals as well as composites and polymers. The informal atmosphere combined with the good pace of the lectures and the discussions during the breaks made it very instructive. All in all, it was a very successful seminar.”

"The Fracture Seminar gives a deeper insight into the various uses and research related to failure modelling,” said Mr. Raphael Klein, Ph.D. Student, Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics. "The seminar was very helpful; I learned a lot from the lectures and discussions with experts and established good contacts. Furthermore, I appreciated the organization and atmosphere. I recommend attending the seminar.”

Learning from the latest advances in fracture mechanics allows CAE engineers and product designers to solve their engineering challenges using FEA technology that enables accurate prediction and control of the risk of damage and failure. It helps participants better understand the "physics behind the screen" in order to make optimal design decisions and achieve faster production and better competitiveness.

The variety of attendees showcased the challenges addressed in industrial sectors spanning Automotive, Aviation, Energy and Chemical.

"We gathered both high class experts and top-level attendees from all over the world,” added Dr. Argiris Kamoulakos, ESI Scientific Director. "The success is due in part to the subject of the seminar itself, as fracture mechanics is extremely critical for a company’s competitiveness. The Fracture Seminar is an excellent way for engineers and scientists from industry and research centers to acquire the best practices in that discipline. It seems that participants went away with ideas on how to overcome their industrial challenges. Most expressed very positive feedback and intend to attend the next event.”

This course is part of a series of Expert Courses on advanced simulation topics. These include the Solidification Seminar held yearly in Switzerland for foundry processes and the Composites Expert Seminar to be held in France on 4-5 October, 2010 on the subject of composite materials modeling.

Read about the upcoming Composites Expert Seminar: www.esi-group.com/corporate/events/composite-seminar-expert-course

About ESI
ESI is a pioneer and world-leading solution provider in virtual prototyping that takes into account the physics of materials. ESI has developed an extensive suite of coherent, industry-oriented applications to realistically simulate a product’s behavior during testing, to fine-tune manufacturing processes in accordance with desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment’s impact on performance. ESI’s solutions fit into a single collaborative and open environment for End-to-End Virtual Prototyping, thus eliminating the need for physical prototypes during product development. The company employs over 750 high-level specialists worldwide covering more than 30 countries. ESI Group is listed in compartment C of NYSE Euronext Paris. For further information, visit www.esi-group.com.

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