Faster simulation -- award for new method

TUM graduate Dominik Schillinger gets John Argyris Award

2012-07-14

(Press-News.org) This press release is available in German.

Computer simulations have become an indispensable part of the modern design process. Standard finite element technology, however, requires designers to carry out a time-consuming and often error-prone mesh generation step that transfers the computer-aided design (CAD) model into the simulation model.

Dominik Schillinger has created a novel simulation concept that enables direct integration of the CAD geometry into the finite element analysis, completely circumventing any mesh generation. The applicability of this technology in engineering practice was successfully tested with CAD models, for example, of a ship propeller and an automobile wheel.

The omission of mesh generation could reduce the overall analysis time with respect to standard finite elements by more than 80%. The new simulation technology is expected to strongly influence the current design process in mechanical, automotive, aerospace and civil engineering over the next decade.

Dominik Schillinger was honored this week at the World Congress on Computational Mechanics in São Paulo for his paper "An Isogeometric Design-through-analysis Methodology based on Adaptive Hierarchical Refinement of NURBS, Immersed Boundary Methods, and T-spline CAD Surfaces" in the journal "Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering."

He was a scholar of the Munich Centre of Advanced Computing (MAC) until May. MAC bundles together research activities related to computational science and engineering at TUM and other institutions in Munich. Doctoral candidates at MAC are members of TUM's International Graduate School of Science and Engineering (IGSSE).

Schillinger worked on his method during his research stay at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) in Austin (USA), financed by "MAC@IGSSE," in collaboration with the TUM institute for Computation in Engineering.

INFORMATION:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Giving time can give you time

2012-07-14

Many people these days feel a sense of "time famine"—never having enough minutes and hours to do everything. We all know that our objective amount of time can't be increased (there are only 24 hours in a day), but a new study suggests that volunteering our limited time—giving it away— may actually increase our sense of unhurried leisure. Across four different experiments, researchers found that people's subjective sense of having time, called 'time affluence,' can be increased: compared with wasting time, spending time on oneself, and even gaining a windfall of 'free' ...

Randomized trial finds counseling program reduces youth violence, improves school engagement

2012-07-14

A new study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools and local nonprofits Youth Guidance and World Sport Chicago, provides rigorous scientific evidence that a violence reduction program succeeded in creating a sizable decline in violent crime arrests among youth who participated in group counseling and mentoring. The Crime Lab study—by far the largest of its kind ever conducted—is unique in that it was structured like a randomized clinical trial of the sort regularly used to generate "gold standard" evidence in the medical ...

Caution needed with new greenhouse gas emission standards

2012-07-14

Policy makers need to be cautious in setting new 'low-carbon' standards for greenhouse gas emissions for oil sands-derived fuels as well as fuels from conventional crude oils University of Calgary and University of Toronto researchers say in a paper published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The researchers, using for the first time confidential data from actual oil sands operations, did a 'well-to-wheel' lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels produced by Alberta oil sands operations compared with conventional crude ...

New proteins to clear the airways in cystic fibrosis and COPD

2012-07-14

Bethesda, MD—University of North Carolina scientists have uncovered a new strategy that may one day help people with cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder better clear the thick and sticky mucus that clogs their lungs and leads to life-threatening infections. In a new report appearing online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), researchers show that the "SPLUNC1" protein and its derivative peptides may be able to help thin this thick mucus by affecting the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC). Not only does this research have implications for cystic ...

Questionnaire completed by parents may help identify 1-year-olds at risk for autism

2012-07-14

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A new study by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers found that 31 percent of children identified as at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at 12 months received a confirmed diagnosis of ASD by age 3 years. In addition, 85 percent of the children found to be at risk for ASD based on results from the First Year Inventory (FYI), a 63-item questionnaire filled out by their parents, had some other developmental disability or concern by age three, said Grace Baranek, PhD, senior author of the study and an autism researcher with ...

Mechanical engineers develop an 'intelligent co-pilot' for cars

2012-07-14

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Barrels and cones dot an open field in Saline, Mich., forming an obstacle course for a modified vehicle. A driver remotely steers the vehicle through the course from a nearby location as a researcher looks on. Occasionally, the researcher instructs the driver to keep the wheel straight — a trajectory that appears to put the vehicle on a collision course with a barrel. Despite the driver's actions, the vehicle steers itself around the obstacle, transitioning control back to the driver once the danger has passed. The key to the maneuver is a new semiautonomous ...

Scaled-back NBAF and NBAF as designed are options that could meet critical US lab needs

2012-07-14

WASHINGTON — It is "imperative" that the U.S. build a large-animal biocontainment laboratory to protect animal and public health, says a new report by the National Research Council. Two options that could meet long-term needs include the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) facility as currently designed, or a scaled-back version tied to a distributed laboratory network. Until such a facility opens that is authorized to work with highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center located off Long Island should remain in operation ...

Getting amped

2012-07-14

PASADENA, Calif.—Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have developed a new type of amplifier for boosting electrical signals. The device can be used for everything from studying stars, galaxies, and black holes to exploring the quantum world and developing quantum computers. "This amplifier will redefine what it is possible to measure," says Jonas Zmuidzinas, Caltech's Merle Kingsley Professor of Physics, the chief technologist at JPL, and a member of the research team. An amplifier is a device that ...

Mutation in gene IDH a possible target for AML treatment

2012-07-14

Many patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) share a mutation in a gene called IDH. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published this week in the journal Leukemia & Lymphoma shows that this IDH mutation may be the first domino in a chain that leads to a more aggressive form of the disease. "In fact, it's not IDH itself that causes the problem," says Dan Pollyea, MD, MS, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and assistant professor of hematologic oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Rather, the mutation in IDH leads to exponentially higher ...

Newer hip reconstruction technique provides good outcomes for athletes

2012-07-14

BALTIMORE, MD – A common, painful hip condition in elite athletes may be able to be repaired with an improved surgical technique, according to researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland today. "In our review of 21 male, elite athletes who had a hip pain and instability issues (hypoplastic or labrum tear), 81 percent returned to play at a similar level as before they were hurt, after receiving an arthroscopic reconstruction technique using an ipsilateral iliotibial band autograft," ...

Faster simulation -- award for new method

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: