Ross McLendon

Various and sundry ramblings.

I am an expert in the field of computational mechanics and finite element analysis with a background in materials modeling across multiple continuum scales.

Employment and Positions

  • Dassault Systemes
    • SIMULIA R&D Product Manager for Abaqus FEA
      2023-Present
      • Coordinate planning and development of Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit solvers
        • Track progress of various enhancement developments
        • Plan and prioritize future developments with development managers
        • Review new feature documentation and release notes
        • Work with DS product managers to support other DS products through FEA developments
      • Handle various customer interactions as a representative for R&D
        • Update Presentations
        • Requests for Enhancement
        • Support coordination as warranted
      • Coordinate between field and sales organization and R&D
      • Support FE-RVE Simulation
    • SIMULIA R&D Software Development Senior Manager
      2017-2022
      • FE-RVE Simulation
        • Developing FE solver functionality to perform Finite Element Representative Volume Element (FE-RVE) simulation
      • Material Calibration App (originally released 2018)
        • Mechanics development for a 3DEXPERIENCE application for calibrating FE material models from test data
        • Development of various fast evaluators for hyperelastic and hyperelastic+prony-series viscoelastic material models.
        • Development of various test data preprocessing algorithms
        • Development of tools to evaluate DMA (Dynamic Mechanical Analysis) response of material models based on DMA test data using time-domain material response evaluation
      • Multiscale Material Modeling
        • Management of the Micromechanics Plugin for Abaqus/CAE
        • Supporting various workflows within SIMULIA leveraging RVE (Representative Volume Element) simulation
      • Presentations at conferences highlighting application of multiscale and material calibration capabilities in DS tools for various engineering problems
    • SIMULIA R&D Development Manager - Materials 2016-2017
      • Developed Abaqus material modeling functionality
      • Implementing orthotropic and anisotropic thermal expansion across material models in Abaqus/Explicit solver
    • SIMULIA Back-end Mechanics Support Manager
      2013-2016
      • Supported front-end DS engineers world-wide on issues related to Abaqus and related software through Management of Service Requests, Bug Reports, and Bug Fix Validation, and customer-facing bug descriptions
      • Areas of specialization for support:
        • Composite materials (Including Composites Modeler for Abaqus/CAE)
        • Hyperelastic, viscoelastic, and fabric materials modeling
        • Secondary – fracture modeling and fatigue (fe-safe)
      • Special projects in addition to support tasks:
        • Led development of the Micromechanics Plugin for Abaqus/CAE
        • Developed approach to predict wrinkling of non-crimp composite fabrics being formed in molds using Abaqus/Explicit
        • Investigated workflows for using Tosca non-parametric optimization to inversely determine modulus distribution from static or steady-state response data
        • Wrote example problem for Abaqus 2016 documentation on use of Prony series viscoelasticity with hyperelasticity to capture hysteresis response of damping structures
  • Texas A&M University
    • AFOSR MURI Program at Texas A&M – Graduate Researcher 2009 – 2013
      • Program objective – develop a hybrid composite system for hypersonic aero structures
      • Primary focus – Multiscale failure modeling of textile composites at elevated temperatures
        • Progressive failure analysis of composite microstructures with randomly positioned fibers to characterize strength variability and effect of thermally-induced microstresses
        • Identification of characteristic failure behaviors in textile composites through analysis of meso-scale structures
      • Secondary focus – modeling support for experimental characterization of interfaces
        • Supported development of interfaces to facilitate coupled aero/thermal/structural simulations using in-house FEA and CFD codes.
        • Managed group development, testing, and maintenance of an object-oriented C++ finite element analysis code, including setting up Git source control and an automatic test suite
      • Highlights of analysis capability development:
        • Implemented cohesive zone model for in-house FEA code
        • Improved existing continuum damage models
        • Implemented methods for characterizing material orientations using quaternions
        • Developed post-processing tools to predict strain energy release rate using VCCT
    • Goodrich Collaborative Project at Texas A&M – Graduate Researcher 2010 - 2011
      • Performed 3D damage modeling of tape laminate material systems
      • Developed free-edge stress analysis tool for tape laminates

Internships and Co-ops

  • Sandia National Laboratories - Albuquerque, NM - Summer 2009
    • Intern in computational mechanics group investigating composites simulation capabilities
  • Wyle Laboratories - Houston, TX - Spr. 2005, Spr.-Sum. 2006
    • Systems Engineering Co-op

Education

  • Texas A&M University - College Station, TX
    • December 2013 - Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering
      • Dissertation: A Multiscale Framework for the Characterization of Damage in Textile Composites Under Thermomechanical Loads
    • December 2009 - M.S. in Aerospace Engineering
      • Thesis: Prediction of Damage Zone Growth in Composites Using Continuum Damage Mechanics
    • 2007 - B.S. in Aerospace Engineering

Skills

Domains

  • Finite Element Analysis
    • Multiscale Simulation
    • Constitutive Modeling
    • Composites Simulation
    • Material Calibration
    • Damage Modeling
    • Fracture Mechanics

Software

  • Programs
    • Abaqus
    • 3DEXPERIENCE
    • Visual Studio
    • Excel
    • Mathematica
    • Maple
    • Matlab
    • LATEX
    • Solidworks
  • Libraries
    • Matplotlib
    • SciPy/NumPy
    • SWIG
    • MKL
    • OpenMP
    • MPI
    • CUDA

Programming Languages

  • C++
  • Python
  • Fortran

Papers, Presentations, and Patents

First Author Journal Papers

  • McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Characteristic Failure Initiation Sites in Plain Weave Textile Composites, Journal of Composite Materials. November 2013, Vol. 47, No. 25, Pp. 3143-3161.
  • McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Influence of thermally induced microstress and microstructural randomness on transverse strength of unidirectional composites, Journal of Composite Materials. May 2016, Vol. 50, No. 11, Pp. 1467–1481.
  • McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Characteristic Progressive Damage Modes in a Plain Weave Textile Composite Under Multiaxial Loads, Journal of Composite Materials. May 2017, Vol 51, No. 11, Pp 1539–1556.

Contributing Author Journal Papers

  • Bi, J., Hanke, F., Ji, H., McLendon, R., Todd, S., Dalrymple, T., Salazar-Tio, R., Persson, M., Chiavaccini, E., Wescott, J., Dietz, S., Schulze, M., Schwöbel, J., Yao, J., Milman, V., Mechin, P. Y., Wohlever, C., Hurtado, J., & Oancea, V. (2021). Multiscale Modeling for the Science and Engineering of Materials. International Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineering, 19 (3), 1–80.
  • Qin S., McLendon W.R., Oancea V. & Beese A.M., Micromechanics of multiaxial plasticity of DP600: Experiments and microstructural deformation modeling, Materials Science and Engineering: A, Vol. 721, April 2018, Pp. 168-178.
  • Ballard M.K., McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., The influence of microstructure randomness on prediction of fiber properties in composites, Journal of Composite Materials. December 2014, Vol 48, No. 29, Pp. 3605-3620.

Selected Preceedings and Presentations

  • *McLendon W.R. & Butler C., Multiscale Characterization of the Mechanical Behavior of Metals from Finite Element Simulation of Crystal Microstructures, NAFEMS Conference on Advancing Analysis and Simulation in Engineering, June 2020, Virtual event (recording)
  • *McLendon W.R., et al., Calibration of a Phenomenological Foam Material Model from Microscale Simulation. NAFEMS World Congress, June 2019, Quebec City, Canada.
  • *McLendon W.R., Multiscale Material Modeling with Abaqus and the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform, SIMULIA West Regional User’s Meeting, November 2018, Santa Clara, CA.
  • *McLendon W.R., et al., Predicting Lattice Response and Stability Using FE-RVE Analysis. NAFEMS Multiscale and Multiphysics Modeling & Simulation, March 2017, Columbus, OH.
  • McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Random Fiber-Matrix Model for Predicting Damage in Multiscale Analysis of Textile Composites under Thermomechanical Loads, 19th International Conference on Composite Materials, August 2013, Montreal, Canada.
  • McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Progressive Failure of Plain Weave Textiles Under Multiaxial Loading, 54th AIAA SDM, April 2013, Boston, MA.
  • *McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Predicting the Effect of Residual Stresses on Failure in Textile Composites Through Multiscale Analysis (Technical Presentation Only), ASME IMECE, November 2012, Houston, TX.
  • *McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Micro-scale Analysis for the Prediction of Strength under Biaxial Thermomechnical Load, 27th Annual American Society of Composites Technical Conference, October 2012, Arlington, TX.
  • *McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Failure Initiation Prediction in Textile Composite Under Complex Thero-Mechanical Loading Based on Meso-scale Analysis, 53rd AIAA SDM, April 2012, Honolulu, HI.
  • *McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Identification of Characteristic Failure Initiation Sites in Plain Weave Textile Composites, 52nd AIAA SDM, April 2011, Denver, CO.
  • McLendon W.R. & Whitcomb J.D., Prediction of Damage Growth in Fiber-Reinforced Composites Using Continuum Damage Mechanics, 50th AIAA SDM, April 2009, Palm Springs, CA.

* Served as presenter

Other Matters

  • Eagle Scout

Community Positions

  • Member at Grace Harbor Church
    • Completed term as Deacon of Music 2015-2021
  • Member of Providence Singers 2016-2023
  • Member of Baptist Convention of New England Board of Directors 2018-2021

Hobbies