National Center of Excellence for Process Simulation

The National Center of Excellence for Process Simulation (SimPRO) is a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (bmb+f) by means of the MaTech-programme, and the Ministry of School, Science and Research (MSWF) of Northrine-Westfalia.

Within the framework of the Center of Excellence nine research institutes from Aachen University of Technology have gathered to join forces in the field of process simulation. The close collaboration between the institutes is not new, though, being the result of more than a decade of co-operation in the Forum Materials Science of the University. This organisation is an interdisciplinary and comprehensive forum for all issues that are materials-related and it unites more than 30 institutions from Aachen University.

The co-ordination of the project was taken over by the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) and an office was set up as a helpdesk in order to provide assistance to the industry regarding all questions related to process simulation.

The Center of Excellence does not only focus on metals, but also on plastics and ceramics. Research is carried out interdisciplinarily in the fields of:

casting,
forming and
microstructure simulation and it covers also
the simulation of subsequent processes e. g. welding, joining, cutting, sintering, surface treatment and coating.
Within this large range of topics enterprises will receive support by SimPRO. We appreciate the opportunity to engage into research and development co-operations with the industry, so that modern simulation approaches can contribute to a more efficient and customer-oriented product development.

The aims of the National Center of Excellence for Process Simulation are:

• the continuous simulation of process steps and changes in the materials properties from the raw material to the product
  
• development, application and verification of simulation tools according to the demands of the industry
  
• development and improvement of material models for different materials
  
• aimed use of commercially available software tools for the problem analysis in the development of materials and processes
  
• improving the acceptance of process simulation in the industry through practically-relevant contributions

The activities of SimPRO are accompanied by the work of two further Centers of Excellence in the MaTech-programme:

• the "Center of Competence for Modelling of Materials (SimMAT)" and
  
• the "Center of Competence "Simulation of Components and Behaviour of Components (SimBAU)".