Plenary and Semi-Plenary Lectures
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| Title: |
| Simulation-Enabled Engineering: Making a Difference in Nationally Significant Accident Investigations |
| Lecturer: |
| Arthur C. Ratzel |
| Abstract: |
| This presentation will focus on the effective use of numerical simulation, supported by experimentation, to enable the timely resolution of engineering problems such as are encountered in accident investigations. The talk will include a discussion on the critical elements for successful implementation of science-based, simulation-enabled engineering and will review how it has evolved over the past decade. Notable examples of the progress in simulation-enabled engineering will be provided, drawing from work by the Sandia National Laboratories engineering sciences community in supporting investigations of high visibility accidents over the past two decades: the gun turret explosion on the battleship USS Iowa, the TWA-800 accident and the most recent Columbia shuttle disaster. In each of these accidents, a team of Sandia staff supported post-event investigations and relied on computation to provide guidance as to the causes of the accidents, which were later substantiated through experimentation/tests. The presentation will close with a proposed path forward for meeting the challenges of achieving more pervasive use of simulation, in particular, achieving “predictive” simulation, and will include a brief discussion of the Sandia vision for achieving full implementation of predictive science-based engineering across the product life-cycle of design, manufacture, qualification, surveillance, and retirement. |
 Dr. Arthur (Art) C. Ratzel III is the Director of the Engineering Sciences Center at Sandia National Laboratories. He has twenty-nine+ years of experience, in both theoretical and experimental work in the areas of fluid/thermal sciences and energetic materials, at Sandia as a staff member and manager.
Art received his Bachelor of Science (1974) and Master’s (1976) Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Houston. He joined Sandia in June 1976 in a Thermal-Fluids group in the present-day Engineering Sciences Center. Art was selected to participate in the Sandia Doctoral Study Program in 1979 and completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in 1981.
Art's work as a staff member at Sandia included applied engineering, as well as research and development efforts supporting a broad spectrum of major Lab initiatives including: design and analysis of innovative solar collection systems, development of computational tools and experimental analysis of hydrogen combustion phenomena, development of instrumentation and analysis of data from underground nuclear tests, and support of Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) discrimination programs.
Art was promoted to technical management in the Engineering Sciences Center in 1990. and led the Center’s thermal, fluids, and aerosciences experimental activities. Art was promoted to Senior Manager in the Engineering Sciences Center in 2000 and had responsibility for six departments engaged in research, development, and application work spanning the thermal, fluids, and aerosciences disciplines. He served as Chief of Staff to the Senior Vice President of the Nuclear Weapons Program from 2003 through 2005. Art was promoted to Director of Engineering Sciences in May 2005. As Director, he oversees the computational and experimental work performed, across the full spectrum of engineering mechanics disciplines (thermal, fluids, aerosciences, solid mechanics, and structural dynamics), by 400+ staff and contractors. |
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