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Summary
Summary
CASA (Centre for Advanced
Structural Analysis) officially
opened on 1 July 2015. The aim is
to become a world-leading centre
for multi-scale testing, modelling
and simulation of materials
and structures for industrial
applications.
History
The research group SIMLab (Structural Impact Laboratory)
at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
provided the foundation for CASA. The research group’s
activity culminated in the SFI by the same name, SFI
SIMLab (2007-2014), which became a world leader in the
design of crashworthy and protective structures.
Organization
CASA is also an SFI – a Centre for Research-based
Innovation*. It is hosted by the Department of Structural
Engineering in close cooperation with the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering and the Department
of Physics at NTNU. SINTEF Materials and Chemistry is
a research partner.
The industrial partners are Aker Solutions, 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.
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.
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 multi- and
interdisciplinary research approach based on multi-
scale 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.
Point of departure
Based on discussions with the partners, the Centre
has formulated three research questions as its point of
departure:
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?
Five programmes
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 Protective Structures.
Each programme has annual work plans with
contributions from PhD candidates, post docs and
scientists from the partners.
TheMethodsandToolsandthe 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.
Kick-off
SFI CASA held its kick-off meeting on 16 September
2015 with all partners well represented and its first
board meeting on the following day.
In 2015, research work in the Centre resulted in 16 papers
published in peer-reviewed journals. The research group
has given 17 seminar and conference contributions,
including 2 keynote and 2 invited lectures.
SFI SIMLab
Some of the PhD projects in SFI SIMLab were not
finished at its closure on 31 December 2014. They
continue in SFI CASA as parallel projects as the topics
are closely related. Three PhD candidates at SFI SIMLab
defended their theses in 2015:
Mikhail Khadyko:
Experimental and numerical study
of yielding, work-hardening and anisotropy in textured
AA6xxx alloys using crystal plasticity models.
Vincent Vilamosa:
Behaviour and modelling of AA6xxx
aluminium alloys under a wide range of temperatures
and strain rates.
Octavian Knoll:
A probabilistic approach in failure
modelling of aluminium High Pressure Die Castings.
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.
SFI CASA has cooperated with the following universities
and research laboratories in 2015:
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; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
Germany; IMPETUS Afea AB, Sweden; Joint Research
Centre, Institute for the Protection and Security of the
Citizen, Italy.
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. It contains articles from the
monthly newsletter that was established in September
2015.
Last, but not least, scientific accomplishments
increase visibility. In 2014, the Research Council of
Norway invited three international panels to carry out
an evaluation of 64 technological research groups in
Norway. The results were published in 2015. Two of the
64 qualified as world leaders in their field. SIMLab was
one of them.
* For further explanation of the SFI scheme, see page
two in the other side of this report.