Every year, Predictive Engineering attends an LS-DYNA Conference, this year it was in Dearborn, MI and next year, it’ll be in Koblenz, Germany. The technical sessions covered a broad range of topics from "How To's" to new numerical algorithms to validation work between experimentalists and theoreticians. For me personally, these were the three stand-out talks:

(i) Modeling & Simulation Challenges at the Interface between Man and Machine: Medical Devices by Dr. M. Palmer
(ii) Modeling of a Cross-Ply Thermoplastic for Thermoforming of Composite Sheets in LS-DYNA by K. White and
(iii) An Enhance Assumed Strain (EAS) Solid Element for Nonlinear Implicit Analysis by T. Borrvall.

The first paper was by Medtronic and the background gossip is that they are moving away from other commercial solvers to focus on just LS-DYNA due to its multi-physics capabilities and especially its strong nonlinear implicit performance. The second paper was a stunner and showed how thermoplastics can easily reach their glass transition temperature under moderate strain rates. In essence, whenever composites are simulated under dynamic environments, one should consider temperature effects on the resin and how it will lower its elasticity. The third paper was just plain fun mechanics and how LS-DYNA is continually expanding its capabilities in the implicit arena.

Clay Hearn, Phd, is Staff Mechanical Engineer at Predictive Engineering with over 15 years experience. Clay gained his initial experience at the the Center for Electromechanics (CEM), a self-funded research organization at the University of Texas at Austin. CEM specializes in applications of pulse power, energy storage, and advanced transportation technologies, and as research engineer, Clay worked on a wide variety of programs. Project highlights from this time include free piston linear compressors, fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles, composite flywheel energy storage, and magnetic bearings.

Prior to joining Predictive Engineering, Clay was Senior Mechanical Engineer for Meggitt - OECO in Milwaukie, OR. OECO provides power generation and power conversion products for aerospace applications. As senior mechanical engineer he was involved in thermal management design and vibration analysis of advanced power conversion products.

In conjunction with his time at CEM, Clay earned his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. His skills include expertise in structural and thermal FEA utilizing ABAQUS, PATRAN, SolidWorks Simulation, COSMOS/M, as well as CFD analysis utilizing SolidWorks Flow Simulation. Clay looks forward to exploring the capabilities of STAR-CCM+, FEMAP and LS-DYNA.

The Predictive Engineering and CAE support teams are looking forward to moving this month. We've secured offices in The Geode, a refurbished and 2-story addition project nearing completion at SE 25th & Division in Portland. 

The move is short for us, but it's never exactly easy. And our previous location was a bit of a seismic risk. As stress engineers, there was an urgent desire to avoid the sheer irony of dying in a 4-story concrete pancake with a mocking tombstone reading "They knew better..."

We'll post some more pictures as the sheetrock goes up and the desks roll in.