nonlinear modeling

I honed my ability to performance of medical devices using computational modeling while consulting with FPrin in San Jose, California. Learning to wield nonlinear finite element codes “in the wild,” subject to project timelines and budgets, was an education in itself, providing invaluable context for my later academic research.

Consultancy imposes specific constraints on numerical modeling, rewarding the fastest route to a correct answer and penalizing extraneous model complexity, however interesting.

To cut directly to the core of a mechanics problem, to identify the correct level of abstraction that yields a lightweight yet insightful analysis, to perform the required level of analysis and no more: this is what I learned across a swath of FPrin projects.

As an example: over the course of a 12 month project contract at FPrin, I acted as the primary analyst and technical communicator with a large European medical device manufacturer.

The device in question was composed of various injection molded plastic and glass components. Large localized stresses during a snap-fit assembly process produced plastic debris inside the device resulting in low yield and safety concerns; previous trial-and-error solution methods had not been effective.

I designed and conducted a modeling campaign aimed at finding and eliminate the root cause of theses issues. I produced meshes from production molded design files, defined nonlinear material models and boundary conditions, and interpreted & communicated results, such as these equilibrium paths in force-displacement space (representative data is used to preserve confidentiality).

As soon as root causes of the issues were determined, I conducted 200+ simulations on a battery of potential design candidates. I led discussion of results from these simulations between our team, design engineers, and the injection molding firm responsible for producing the finished design.

We chose the highest-performing design from the simulation campaign and authorized changes to the steel tool. When the first new parts came off the line, the design changes had eliminated the debris issue - an unalloyed success.