Suc­cess­ful CAESES User Con­fer­ence 2022

For a long time, the COVID-19 pandemic had restricted global travel and events, forcing us to postpone our CAESES User Con­fer­ence, orig­i­nally sched­uled for autumn 2021. Finally, in 2022, national and inter­na­tional restric­tions were eased, and it was exciting to once again be able to host a face-to-face con­fer­ence to meet our users, educate further and effec­tively network – some­thing that had long been missed.

We would like to thank all atten­dees of the CAESES User Con­fer­ence 2022 (Sep­tem­ber 21 – 22) for joining us at the Penta Hotel in Berlin, making this event such a huge success! Each and everyone from the team at FRIEND­SHIP SYSTEMS fully enjoyed meeting up and chatting with you. As usual, your con­tri­bu­tions and feedback were a great source of inspiration.

Work­shops

After some people already gathered over drinks at the welcome recep­tion the evening prior, the first con­fer­ence day started off with a choice of two CAESES work­shops (maritime and tur­bo­ma­chin­ery). The over­ar­ch­ing goal was to provide helpful infor­ma­tion and intro­duce new concepts to advanced CAESES users.

The maritime workshop covered advanced morphing tech­niques in CAESES and methods for stream­lin­ing design processes in the context of maritime appli­ca­tions. Tips, tricks, and new func­tion­al­ity were shown for Boundary Rep­re­sen­ta­tions (BReps) and the modeling of curves and surfaces for robust geometry gen­er­a­tion. Data mapping on geome­tries and visu­al­iza­tion of design vari­ables’ impact on the model were also part of the curriculum.

The tur­bo­ma­chin­ery workshop focused on the design of tur­bo­ma­chin­ery com­po­nents using a set of new func­tion­al­ity and a new struc­ture ded­i­cated to the modeling of tur­bo­ma­chin­ery that will soon be avail­able in CAESES. Based on a demo example of a cen­trifu­gal turbine, the avail­able methods were intro­duced and guidance was given on how to use them best to face even complex modeling sit­u­a­tions with a high level of customization.

User Pre­sen­ta­tions

Each day of the con­fer­ence was headed by a keynote pre­sen­ta­tion which slightly opened the spectrum beyond the pure appli­ca­tion of CAESES. On the first day, Martin Fischer, Chief Designer at our customer INEOS Bri­tan­nia, talked about ​“Driving Complex Projects in Highly Com­pet­i­tive Envi­ron­ments”, giving insight into the man­age­ment approaches and strate­gies involved in the devel­op­ment of a poten­tially winning com­peti­tor for the 37th Amer­i­ca’s Cup. On the second day, Prof. Gerd Holbach, chair for Design and Oper­a­tion of Maritime Systems at the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity Berlin, pre­sented the various chal­lenges his depart­ment faced when devel­op­ing Elektra, the first zero-emission canal push boat powered by hydrogen fuel cells and bat­ter­ies world­wide, and their solutions.

They were followed by CAESES users from all over the world, talking about how to create the most com­pet­i­tive products on the market. These fas­ci­nat­ing user pre­sen­ta­tions covered a wide gamut of appli­ca­tions, includ­ing topics such as the aero and hydro­dy­namic opti­miza­tion, as well as elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, of ships and ground vehicles, the design of wind and hydro power gen­er­a­tion systems, pump design for high energy effi­ciency, the devel­op­ment of aircraft hybrid-electric propul­sion systems, machine learning approaches, and design for additive man­u­fac­tur­ing. The audience could get a very good overview of where and how CAESES is used. At the same time, one could get an idea of how chal­leng­ing all these dif­fer­ent appli­ca­tions are, with all their complex design con­straints and pressing time-schedules.

Exhi­bi­tion

Software vendors from the CFD meshing and solver space shared their exper­tise and solu­tions with the atten­dees, and used the oppor­tu­nity to discuss current chal­lenges and trends in the CAE sector.

Dr. Bodo Hasubek brought a 1:10 scale, aluminum built, model of his Dream­catcher One cata­ma­ran, which isn’t just an attrac­tive model, but both a real­is­tic rehearsal of the future full-scale building process, and a test bed for the self-devel­oped thrust vector maneu­ver­ing system. TU Berlin provided the actual planing hull model used for model tests within the Autoplan R&D project. It was produced by SVA Potsdam and includes an inter­change­able tunnel section, among other features. Siemens Energy exhib­ited a selec­tion of 3D printed pro­to­types with dif­fer­ent cooling designs for a gas turbine pilot cone, also an outcome of a joint R&D project, SDD-fAMe.

It can also be said that the exhi­bi­tion extended as far as the harbor of Berlin West­hafen, were — on the day after the con­fer­ence — atten­dees had the oppor­tu­nity to follow up on Pro­fes­sor Hol­bach’s keynote and join him for a guided tour on the Elektra, the inno­v­a­tive canal push boat powered by hydrogen fuel cells and batteries.

More Impres­sions

Take a look at this picture gallery for more impres­sions from this great event.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

Not to forget – once again, thanks a lot to our sponsors for coming to Berlin and actively sup­port­ing this event. It was great to have you with us!

Special thanks to NUMECA Ineg­nieur­büro, CFD support, SimScale, GridPro and Flowtech!