More Than 140 Experts met at the Variable Amplitude Loading in Prague.

The 3rd International Conference on Material and Component Performance under Variable Amplitude Loading (VAL 2015) successfully took place in the Prague Congress Centre from the 23rd to 26th of March 2015. In cooperation with local organizer, Czech Technical University of Prague, C-IN acted as the full PCO of the event.

The city of Prague followed the previous editions of VAL conferences held in Tours, France in 2002 and in Darmstadt, Germany in 2009, which proved that the academic and engineering community understands the importance of the topic very well. Therefore, the local organizer, Czech Technical University of Prague, was proud to learn about the decision to organize the next meeting in Prague.

The problem of the variable amplitude loading is one of the key issues concerning the fatigue and fracture analysis. Due to the complexity of the problems linked to the damaging processes, the abstraction to simplified loading is often regarded as necessary. According to this, many predictive models are adjusted to such a simplified load processes. On the other hand, variable amplitude loading, which was the main topic of this conference, is much more common and thus their impact on the life of the product is more important. In the designing of the new machines, the knowledge of the final service loads is weak and thus simplifications must be implemented. Many companies dealing with the continuous production of machines intended for a particular handling apprehend that without the right understanding of the service life of their products, their position with customers is bound to be very insecure. They know that only gaining a deeper understanding of the issue may allow them to provide customers with the guarantees they expect.

A set of minisymposia was organized to initiate and cultivate the discussion about the issue of the fatigue and fracture analysis. The scientific program consisted of oral presentations and poster sections. Amongst the keynote speakers of the conference belonged Cetin Morris Sonsino (LBF Darmstadt, Germany), Denis Benasciutti (University of Udine, Italy), Ali Fatemi (University of Toledo, USA), Narayanaswami Ranganathan, (Université Francois Rabelais de Tours, France). The Czech Republic was represented by Jiri Papuga (Czech Technical University of Prague) and Jaroslav Polak (Institute of Physics of Materials CAS).

C-IN was responsible for organizing the event. The complete conference management services ranged from registration of the delegates, designing the scientific program, accommodation service and organization of the informal networking during the Gala Dinner at Pilsen restaurant in art nouveau Municipal House.