The LS-DYNA simulation software has an extremely wide variety of purposes. A few of these purposes include testing automotive crashworthiness and occupant safety, metal forming, aerospace technology, and multiphysics. To put it in layman’s terms, it tests things like seatbelts, metal stamping, and bird strikes on planes along with a long list of additional capabilities.
Hallquist worked with the weapons laboratory at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for 15 years. During that time he worked on mathematical models that predict the effectiveness of bombs and missile guidance systems. Hallquist went on to found the Livermore Software Technology Corporation (LSTC) which produces world-class computational mechanics software. This is where he developed LS-DYNA, along with many other large computer programs.
According to the LSTC website, the code's origins lie in highly nonlinear, transient dynamic finite element analysis using explicit time integration. Nonlinear means that one of the following (and sometimes all) of the complications are tested: changing boundary conditions (contact between parts that changes over time), large deformations (the crumpling of sheet metal parts) and nonlinear materials that do not exhibit ideally elastic behavior. Transient dynamic means analyzing high speed, short duration events where inertial forces are important, such as automotive crashes, explosions, and manufacturing (sheet metal stamping).
Hallquist is a member of the ASM International Golden Gate Chapter and was a keynote panel member at the 2000 ANSYS Users Conference where he discussed the “Future Directions in Engineering Simulation.”
To learn more about LS-DYNA, click here.
To learn more about Hallquist, please read his bio page here.
Posted by Stan Sulewski