American University of Sharjah, in collaboration with Červenka Consulting, held the first "ATENA - Get Acquainted" seminar in the Gulf region on Tuesday, December 17, 2013. ATENA is software for non-linear analysis of concrete and other structures based on finite element method, fracture mechanics, plasticity and damage. Červenka Consulting also presented the major software package as a gift to the Department of Civil Engineering at AUS.

After donating the software to AUS, Dr. Jan Červenka, Executive Director of Červenka Consulting, presented the main theoretical methods and models in the software ATENA. The validity and accuracy of the software was demonstrated on various benchmark problems, and emphasis was placed on showing the examples of successful application from industrial practice and research. At the end of the seminar, an example calculation showed the unique ATENA runtime and post-processing visualization environment.

ATENA simulates real behavior of concrete and reinforced concrete structures including concrete cracking, crushing and reinforcement yielding and gives engineers the power to check and verify their structures in a user-friendly graphical environment. The program is suitable and validated for the modeling of brittle materials such as concrete, high strength concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, rock and masonry and the program includes also validated material models for steel based on plasticity and cohesive contact models based on Mohr-Coulomb criterion.

According to Dr. Leland Blank, Dean of the AUS College of Engineering, "The software is being used in more than 500 universities worldwide, but this is the first time it is introduced to the students at AUS. In fact, this seminar is the first to be offered in UAE and the Gulf and comes as a part of our college's effort to prepare students for the challenges when they join the workforce."

Dr. Sherif Yehia, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, said, "The software is a powerful tool for non-linear analysis of reinforced concrete and concrete structures. Our graduate students and faculty will benefit from the many features the software offers in support of their research and theses."

Present at the seminar were engineers from consulting firms and governmental agencies, as well as faculty and graduate students from AUS, United Arab Emirates University and Abu Dhabi University.