Dr. Matthew Ian Barham
Computational Engineering Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

An Overview of ALE3D with Some Recent Developments in Fracture Modeling

ABSTRACT: ALE3D is a multiphysics finite element code written to address physics and engineering problems on unstructured grids. With a guiding philosophy to run as Lagrangian as possible, ALE3D is well-suited for use in advanced material model development and in applications involving material fracture. This talk will provide an overview of the code capabilities with particular emphasis on structural response under high-rate loading. I will discuss some current areas of code development including a non-local approach to reducing mesh sensitivity in fracture, a shear band sub-scale model, and porting of capabilities to GPU-based computing platforms.

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Matthew Barham is a Computational Physicist in Weapons Physics Design (WPD). Matthew is an ALE3D expert user with over a decade of experience answering questions for national security applications. He has used the code to design several experiments and used the results to further modeling capabilities. Matthew received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from California Maritime Academy in 2002. After receiving his B.S., he worked on multiple civilian ships around the world as a 3rd assistant engineering officer. Matthew received his M.S. and Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 2007 and 2011. While attending graduate school, he joined LLNL in 2008 as a Lawrence Scholar researching magneto elastic membrane theory. After converting to staff in 2011, he performed ALE3D code development and analysis in support of Navy Railgun, Joint Munitions Program (JMP), and DARPA armor projects. In 2017, Matthew began working as a weapons physics designer in WPD. He worked on a tri-lab collaboration experiment series with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).