Computational Structural Mechanics Association

History of CSMA

The Modern Mechanics of Solids and Structures started relatively late in France and initially focused on its theoretical aspects. Positioned between theoretical mechanics and numerical analysis, structural analysis remained at a relatively low level in the 1980s.

The community truly formed in 1985-86 with the creation of “GRECO-GIS” “Calcul de Structures et Intelligence Artificielle” (“Structural Analysis and Artificial Intelligence”). This was a research structure organized in a network around a fairly broad theme, bringing together academic and industrial teams. It allowed for:

  • An exchange of ideas within a community that agrees to share results and the resulting benefits.
  • The interaction of several specialties and several cultures.

The core of the research program, which reflected the needs of industrialists, aimed at opening up structural analysis to the integration of technological considerations, improving performance, and assessing result quality, integrating solid mechanics and the most advanced programming techniques, particularly artificial intelligence. The GRECO part corresponded to upstream research, while the GIS part corresponded to finalized research, leading in particular to the creation of software or software models.

Created and directed by Pierre Ladevèze, GRECO-GIS was strongly supported by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MENRT), and by the French Directorate General of Armament (DGA). This support notably allowed many laboratories to be equipped with workstations.

The Scientific Committee was chaired by O.C. Zienkiewicz. R. Ohayon, J.C. Lachat, J.P. Grellier, J.M. Fouet, and R. Monin also played a major role in the success of GRECO-GIS.

It is interesting to note that other French mechanics communities were also created in the 1980s through GRECO “Large Deformations and Damage” and GRECO “Numerical Fluid Mechanics.”

At its inception in 1986, GRECO-GIS included approximately 12 academic teams (75 researchers involved) and 15 industrial teams. By 1990, when GRECO-GIS was closed, it included 21 academic teams (100 researchers involved) and 31 industrial teams. Among the forty-five prototype software models developed, fifteen led to industrialization.

GRECO was concluded by a “European Conference on New Advances in Computational Structural Mechanics” (Chairmen P. Ladevèze – O.C. Zienkiewicz) organized under the auspices of IACM.

The community born from GRECO-GIS wished to continue the close ties created in the field of “Computational Mechanics” between academic and industrial teams by creating in 1990 the “Computational Structural Mechanics Association,” an association affiliated with IACM. CSMA organizes a National Symposium on Structural Analysis every two years in Giens on the French Riviera.

This symposium continues to grow in success, as evidenced by the number of participants (over 200) at the last symposium organized by the LMA in Marseille. Based on the last symposia and the authors involved, it can be estimated that the French “Computational Mechanics” community currently comprises some 800 to 1000 members.

The various administration committees under the successive presidency of: R. Ohayon (90-96), N.Q. Son (96-99) ensured the scientific quality of these symposia and the scientific animation in the field of organization of working days. The themes covered are very varied. For example, the last organized days focused on:

  • Alternative techniques to FEM.
  • Sensitivity analysis for nonlinear problems.
  • Model recalibration.
  • Boundary elements.

Traditionally, four speakers, two from industry and two from academia, present a general conference. These speakers have, for example, been O. Debordes (LMA-Marseille) on “Structural calculations and software architecture,” J.C. Lachat (Usinor-La Défense) on “Research and development in the implementation of steels,” J.J. Moreau (LMGC-Montpellier) on “Evolution in the presence of unilateral links,” and M. Vialle (Eurocopter-Marignane) on “CAD, calculations, tests in helicopters.”

Among the main themes covered, we note, for example:

  • Dynamics, vibration and active control.
  • Behavior laws, identification, composites.
  • Numerical methods and alternative computing, software.
  • Optimization, parallelism, meshing and adaptability.
  • Beams, plates and shells.
  • Contact and friction.

It is also worth noting that, in addition to oral presentations, a special evening is devoted to research software demonstrations. All this makes the CSMA congress organized in Giens quite fascinating with a remarkable mix of engineers and researchers and a very pleasant balance between novice and experienced researchers, both recognized.