ISOPE             International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers

J. S. Chung Award Lecture for 2007

New Computational Mechanics for Ships and Offshore Engineering

From Construction Stage to Structural Collapse Stage

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, December 1 ― Yukio Ueda, Professor emeritus, Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan was presented the 2007 J. S. Chung Award and delivered the Award Lecture at The 17th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE-2007), Lisbon, July 3. Some 950 from 48 countries participated in the conference.

Summary

To assure the safety of large structures such as ships and offshore structures, it is important to clarify the entire process leading to the overall collapsing state of the structures. For this purpose, several computational methods are developed in the 2 main fields of mechanics with the aid of the finite element method (FEM): Computational Welding Mechanics for Construction Stage, and Computational Structural Mechanics for Ultimate Strength Analysis—ISUM (Idealized Structural Unit Method). These new computational methods form an essential basis for the idea of design by analysis and production planning based on computational simulation.

Prof. Ueda further stated as follows:

Since the J. S. Chung Award Lecture for 2007 is presented for an outstanding creative and innovative contribution to the offshore, ocean and polar engineering fields, I would like to shine a light on these aspects of my research. Before I retired from research activities several years ago, I was engaged in research for more than 35 years, mainly on the development of computational mechanics based on the finite element method (FEM). The main purpose of my research was to clarify the mechanism for how steel structures sustain external loads until collapsing, and to provide proper information for rational structural design.

I initiated most of my original work with the aid of the computer in the late 1960s. At that time, computational science was far behind that of the present. During the time when I was engaged with research under those circumstances, its outputs had been completely new developments. As time passed, some of these have become standard theories and methods, but others need updating. This trend should be observed in every field of science, since the advance of the computer is so rapid. However, I believe that our research outputs have contributed to the development of the present-day computational mechanics with originality, creativity and innovative ideas. Then, for the title of the lecture, I dare to name it New Computational Mechanics.

Readers who are interested in academic aspects should refer to the International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISSN: 1053-5381), Volume 17, Number 4, December, 2007.

By Staff, International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE): info@isope.org, www.isope.org