Effective development of a finite-element solver at the University

Software development is usually neglected by academic researchers in the field of computational solid mechanics. This lack of long-term strategy often leads to the loss of valuable numerical models and algorithms. In the first part of this talk, the key ideas behind the management of the source code of METAFOR, a nonlinear finite-element solver developed at the University of Liège, are presented in detail. The primary goal is to continuously integrate all the developments into a single application so that future projects can safely rely on the results from the past. The second part of the talk exhibits several applications of metal forming processes computed with METAFOR and based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formalism.