After receiving his doctoral degree on Material Science from the Technical
University of Munich, Dr Helmut Gese founds the engineering consultancy
MATFEM Ingenieurbüro Dr. H. Gese in May 1993.
The company focuses on modelling mechanical and coupled thermal-mechanical
problems with the Finite-Element Method (FEM) with strongly nonlinear material
behaviour: sheet metal forming in automotive and aerospace applications
and nonlinear contact problems in knee endprotheses.
Gernot Oberhofer joins the company in October 1993 as
consultig engineer for FEM. He just finished his Diploma degree on material
modelling for biomechnical applications.
In 1998 MATFEM starts a service to characterize material cards for
nonlinear FEM. The required data is obtained from experiments at different
partner labs. This will later be known as the
CommonLab branch.
In 1998 Professor Harry Dell joins MATFEM. He brings in a
strong expertise in modelling localized necking in sheet materials. In the same
year MATFEM starts activity in crashworthiness simulation with focus on
material models.
In January 1999 Helmut Gese and Gernot Oberhofer are partners in the
newly-formed company MATFEM Partnerschaftsgesellschaft
Dr. Gese & Oberhofer.
Prof. Dell’s program CrachLab is published in 2000.
With the help of this software, forming limit diagrams can be
calculeted based on the strain-hardening behaviour of a material.
From 1999 to 2000, Gernot Oberhofer and Harry Dell implement
user material models for LS-DYNA®. The first model was a model
for wrought magnesium developed in an industrial research project.
Later, models for polymers and porous polymers are developed in
customer projects (2001–2004), alongside the characterization of
the material cards in cooperation with partner labs.
In 2000–2001, CrachLab’s algorithm to predict localized
necking is successfully applied to non-linear strain paths in successive
stamping and crash processes in a common project with partners from
industry. Helmut Gese coordinates this project
for MATFEM.
MATFEM develops the failure model CrachFEM,
which can be used in explicit-dynamic finite-element simulations. ESI
implemented CrachFEM into the FEM codes PAM-Stamp and PAM-Crash.
Validation results of a side crash from an industrial project
are presented on EuroPAM 2003.
The paper of
Hooputra et al. (2005) summarises validation work done at BMW on
aluminium extrusions and makes MATFEM’s fracture models widely
known.
In 2005 and 2006 Prof. Dell and Gernot Oberhofer extend
the CrachFEM model to a full user material model by adding the modular
elasto-plastic model MF GenYld. Later, the material model
MF GenYld + CrachFEM is coupled to LS-Dyna
and Radioss.
The NADIA research project (2006–2010)is financed by the
European Commission and deals with modelling high pressure die-cast
alloys. In that project, MATFEM develops a method of mapping of process
parameters to the crashworthiness simulation in cooperation with
MAGMA®.
In 2010, the 1st MATFEM Conference is
held in Schloss Hohenkammer. The conference will be an established biennial
meeting for materials and simulation specialists.
By 2015, MF GenYld + CrachFEM incorporates modules to model organic
sheets with a woven lattice of glass fibers and other unidirectionsl composite
materials.
In the following years MATFEM develops a very efficient solution for
short-fibre reinforced thermoplastics: After mapping the principal
fibre orientation and the degree of orientation from the mould-filling
simulation, MF GenYld + CrachFEM can represent the local deformation
and failure accurately.
A further development focus from 2018 to 2021 are orthotropic
material models for metals and polymers produced by additive
manufacturing.