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summaRy
SUMMARY
Organization
CASA (Centre for Advanced Structural Analysis) is a
Centre for Research-based innovation (SFI). It is hosted
by the Department of Structural Engineering at the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
in close cooperation with Department of Materials
Science and Engineering and Department of Physics,
also at NTNU. SINTEF Materials and Chemistry is the
research partner.
The industrial partners in 2016 were Audi AG, Benteler
Aluminium Systems Norway AS, BMW Group, DNV GL AS,
Gassco AS, Honda R&D Americas Inc., Hydro Aluminium
AS, Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation,
Norwegian Defence Estates Agency, Norwegian
National Security Authority, Norwegian Public Roads
Administration, Sapa AB, SSAB, Statoil Petroleum AS, and
Toyota Motor Europe. Aker Solutions and SSAB withdrew
from the consortium at the end of 2016. Renault joined
the Centre as a new partner from January 2017.
SFI CASA’s board comprises representatives from all the
partners. A director heads the daily operation, assisted by
a core team and programme heads. A Scientific Advisory
Board of international experts has been appointed to
provide scientific and strategic advice. In addition, CASA
has established an Industrial Reference Group to oversee
and facilitate industrial implementation of the results
generated in the Centre.
History
The activities in SFI CASA are based on the research
platform generated in the SFI SIMLab Centre from 2007-
2014. They preserve and further develop the knowledge
and infrastructure generated by an investment of NOK
225 million to facilitate innovation and value creation in
important business areas for Norwegian society.
In this respect the developed integrated approach to
structural problems involves all aspects necessary to
make computational mechanics successful. This adds up
to a unique platform for the research in CASA.
The SIMLab Tool Box is a collection of software products
that enables the transfer of technology from the SIMLab
Centre to CASA. This provides a foundation for further
developments and seamless implementation at the user
partners. CASA is much broader in scope than the previous
centre. It represents a step change for advanced structural
analysis for industry and public enterprises as it is based
on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research on
different physical scales.
Generic research
The Centre will develop validated computational tools for
innovation with and for the partners working in the oil and
gas industry, in transportation and with physical security.
Although the partners represent different fields they have
similar needs in advanced structural analysis. The basic
research in the Centre is pre-competitive and generic.
This facilitates cooperation and transfer of knowledge
across business sectors. A multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary research approach based on multiscale
testing, modelling and analysis in an industrial context is
applied. Another characteristic is the top-down/bottom-
up approach. The main goal is always the final structure
of the product.
Research questions and programmes
Three core research questions form the basis for research
at the Centre:
1. How can we establish accurate, efficient and
robust constitutive models based on the chemical
composition, microstructure and thermo-mechanical
processing of a material?
2. How can we apply knowledge of material, geometry
and joining technology to obtain optimal behaviour of
hybrid structures for given load situations?
3. How can we describe the interaction between the
load and the deformable structure under extreme
loading scenarios?
Motivated by these questions, the Centre has defined five
basic research programmes to increase the prediction
accuracy of numerical simulations: Lower Scale, Metallic
Materials, Polymeric Materials, Structural Joints, and
Structures. Each programme has annual work plans
with contributions from PhD candidates, post docs and
scientists from the partners. The Methods and Tools and
the Industrial Implementation activities serve as links
between the basic research and the industrial need for
the technology developed and are gathered in the SIMLab
Tool Box for implementation at the industrial partners.
Meetings and seminars
The Centre organized several technical meetings and
seminars with participants from the industrial partners
through. The technical meetings are an arena to present
the work in the research programmes and for discussions
with the partners. The annual work plans are based on
the discussions at the technical meetings. The Industrial
Reference Group held its first meeting on 1 March and
another meeting in November in conjunction with the
CASA Seminar. A training seminar on the SIMLab Tool Box
software took place in Trondheim in September 2016.
There was a meeting and seminar with CASA’s Scientific
Advisory Board in Trondheim on 26-27 October and finally
CASA held its annual Seminar and Board Meeting on 16-
17 November.
SFI SIMLab
Some of the PhD projects in SFI SIMLab were not
completed at its closure in 2014. They continue in SFI
CASA as parallel projects as the topics are closely
related. Two PhD candidates from SFI SIMLab and one
PhD candidate on a concurrent project defended their
theses in 2016:
Marius Andersen: An Experimental and Numerical Study
of Thermoplastics at Large Deformations
Jens Kristian Holmen: Modelling and Simulation of
Ballistic Impact
Arne Ilseng: Mechanical Behaviour of Particle-filled
Elastomers at Various Temperatures. An Experimental
and Numerical Study
International cooperation
International cooperation and leading-edge research are
fundamental to an SFI. The key researchers in CASA all
have an extensive international network. Three of the
professors are editors of leading international journals.
CASA has cooperated with the following universities and
research laboratories in 2016:
Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan/Laboratorie de
Mécanique et Technologie (ENS/LMT), France; Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; University of São
Paulo, Brazil; Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, University of Toyama, Japan; Department
of Metallurgy and Ceramics Science, Tokyo Institute
of Technology, Japan; IMPETUS Afea AB, Sweden;
Joint Research Centre, Institute for the Protection and
Security of the Citizen, Italy; Faculty of Engineering and
the Environment, University of Southampton, UK; Purdue
University, USA.
Visibility
CASA’s media strategy aims at popular science
presentations of its research activities. It is also an
aim to make female researchers particularly visible
in order to recruit female researchers and contribute
to a more even gender balance in this research field.
The popularized part of this report exemplifies how the
strategies are carried out and contains articles from
CASA’s monthly newsletter.
Besides popular science presentations the importance
of being visible in research is a given. In 2016 CASA
published 21 articles in peer-reviewed journals and gave
15 conference presentations.