Engineering student wins NAFEMS award

An Abaqus product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 23, 2005

An undergraduate engineering student using Abaqus software has received the 'Most Innovative Use of FEA' prize in the 2005 NAFEMS Student Award competition.

Abaqus, a provider of software and services for advanced finite element analysis (FEA), and NAFEMS (Glasgow, UK), the International Association for the Engineering Analysis Community, have announced that an undergraduate engineering student using Abaqus software has received the 'Most Innovative Use of FEA' prize in the 2005 NAFEMS Student Award competition.

The NAFEMS competition, in its inaugural year, recognises the importance of higher education to the advancement of finite element modelling (FEM) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and encourages undergraduate students to work in these fields.

Three awards in all are given.

Paul Chester, an engineering student at the University of Surrey (Guildford, Surrey, UK), won this year's award for 'Most Innovative Use of FEA' for a project titled 'Investigation into the behaviour of grouted connections in offshore wind turbines in response to boat impacts'.

Chester's project required the integrated use of Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit software to analyse the impact of a ship on the grouted connection of the support structure of an offshore wind turbine.

He used several advanced analysis tools, including continuum shells, concrete damaged plasticity, and tied and sliding contact.

For modelling and visualisation, he accomplished the majority of his work using Abaqus/CAE.

Chester completed some of his project work while employed as an engineering intern with Kellogg Brown and Root, a global engineering, construction, technology and services company, and a long-term Abaqus customer.

He will present his paper to an audience of professionals at the Abaqus UK Users' Conference in November 2005.

"Using ABAQUS for my realistic simulation analysis method proved highly efficient and productive", said Chester.

"This competition reflects a collaboration between industry and academia that offers valuable opportunities for students to utilise professional resources and to complement and enhance our instructional experience".

"I am grateful to Kellogg Brown and Root and to NAFEMS for their generous and encouraging support as I pursue my engineering career".

"Our company is committed to supporting the development of talented, young innovators", said Phil Hoult, Lead Engineer for the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm of Kellogg Brown and Root.

"We welcome the opportunity to showcase the achievements of the next generation of engineers".

"We are very proud of the recognition Paul has received for his work".

"It was an honour to sponsor the inaugural NAFEMS Student Award, and we salute the quality simulation work submitted by all the entrants", stated Alan Prior, General Manager for Abaqus UK ".

""As an independent body representing the whole engineering analysis community, NAFEMS provides the ideal framework for this activity".

"We look forward to continued involvement with the award competition in the future".

Chester and the two other 2005 award winners received their prizes on 5th August 2005 at a reception and dinner held at the headquarters of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London.

The award consists of a cash prise, a medal and a certificate.