Vitae

William Matthew Peterson

Summary

Expertise
I have 6+ years of advanced experience performing Linear and Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with implicit and explicit solvers. I specialize in progressive fracture models, Abaqus user-subroutine development, model pre/post-processing, and mesh generation.

In my current projects, I have focused on the design and implementation of new techniques leveraging the Discontinuous Galerkin Method and Cohesive Zone Model for predicting material damage and crack growth in composite materials and adhesive bonds.

Values
I believe that integrity, collaboration, innovation, and adaptability are critical to success. I take the initiative to learn and develop new ideas, and I seek out opportunities to improve my knowledge, leadership, and communication skills.

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering
Montana State University, Bozeman MT
August 2011 - August 2018 (expected)
Thesis: A Selectively Activated Cohesive Zone Model with Arbitrary Interelement Crack Growth for the Finite Element Method

M.S., Mechanical Engineering
Montana State University, Bozeman MT
August 2009 - August 2011
Thesis: Effect of Fiber Diameter on Stress Transfer and Interfacial Damage in Fiber Reinforced Composites

B.S., Mechanical Engineering
Montana State University, Bozeman MT
August 2004 - August 2009

Employment and Research Experience

Graduate Research Assistant
Composite Technologies Research Group
Montana State University, Bozeman MT
August 2011 - present
Developed a novel computational framework for mesh generation and efficient fracture and progressive crack growth models.

Engineering Analyst/Consulting Contract
AutoPilot
Bozeman MT
December 2010 - February 2011
Developed finite element models with large strain, contact, and hyperelastic materials.

Graduate Teaching Assistant
Mechanical Engineering Department
Montana State University, Bozeman MT
August 2009 - August 2011
Lab instructor for "Intro to Finite Element Analysis," using ANSYS Mechanical APDL and ANSYS Workbench.

Engineering Intern
Quantum Composers, Bozeman MT
September 2008 - February 2009
Production-level fabrication and assembly of electronic pulse generators.

Engineering Intern
Space Science and Engineering Labs (SSEL)
Montana State University, Bozeman MT
May 2008 - September 2008
Design, machining, and testing of antenna deployment system for the E1-P nanosatellite

Research Affiliations

Visiting Scholar
Wind Energy and Water Power Technologies
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque NM
July 2014
1-week training for ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) of composite materials.

Professional Activities, Leadership, and Service

Programming and Database Languages

Software and Technology

Publications and Conference Proceedings

Mentees’ names underlined. Open access articles () are linked below; all other PDFs () are provided for personal use only.

Selected Research Projects

Additional (non-published) research interests and reports. Supplementary materials on GitHub () are linked below each project. All linked PDFs () are provided for personal use only.

Mathematical Formulation of the Interior Penalty Discontinuous Galerkin Method
Derivation of the IP-DGM for the implementation of an advanced interface element (April 2018).

Robot Kinematics and Artificial Neural Networks
Forward and inverse kinematics of a 3-DOF parallel manipulator using neural nets (May 2014).

Viscoplastic Material Models and Displacement-Based Formulation for FEA
Derivation of strain-hardening and strain-rate-sensitive models (April 2014).

Selected Open Source Projects

Supplementary materials on GitHub () are linked below each project.

FortranHashDict: Dictionary Data Structure for Fortran 2003+
A fast, easy-to-use data structure using a hashtable, singly-linked lists, and OOP techniques (December 2017). LGPLv3

UTRI3: User Element Subroutine for Abaqus
A 2D linear triangle User Element (UEL) for Abaqus/Standard, programmed in Fortran 2003 using OOP techniques (December 2017). LGPLv3