Core PZFlex members

Dr. Robbie Banks received his advanced degrees in ultrasonic design and his BE in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. At Weidlinger's Northern California office, Dr. Banks specializes in the field of ultrasonic and piezoelectric material modeling research as well as product development for PZFlex. Prior to joining Weidlinger, he was design engineer for Axiom Process, Ltd., in Aberdeen, UK ,and technology consultant for DERA, Farnborough, UK. He worked on the design of new drive electronics for solids control in the offshore oil industry and the development of a wireless portable traffic lights system. Dr. Banks also worked as a technology consultant in the defense industry on projects relating to nondestructive evaluation and process evaluation of aerospace structures and materials. During his years at Strathclyde, he was employed at one of the UK’s most progressive and respected ultrasonic research facilities on projects in the field of electronic engineering, specifically on ultrasound generation and propagation for acoustic inspection and imaging.

Dr. John C. Mould, Jr. received his PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in civil engineering and his BSCE and MSCE from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His focus was on geomechanics and structures. As a Senior Associate at Weidlinger for the past two decades, he has formulated and implemented the constitutive model used for analysis of concrete and rock and analyzed above- and below-ground concrete structures subjected to blast and impact. He supervises the representation of materials in FLEX analyses and the technology development of NLFlex for piezoelectric applications. He also managed the development of the SPFlex module for long-range linear and nonlinear acoustic wave propagation.

David Vaughan has BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M. His master's thesis investigated the most accurate nonlinear constitutive models for representing large-strain plastic behavior of aluminum alloys used in aerospace structures. He worked at Rockwell International on the analysis of the space shuttle orbiter during its design phase and performed a number of specialized support calculations, including nonlinear buckling analysis of the cargo bay section of the shuttle orbiter using the STAGS finite difference code. He was lead person in charge of providing mechanical design loads for the orbiter, including both inertial and aerodynamic forces (boost and reentry loads with aeroelasticity considered). He has been employed at Weidlinger since 1976 in the development and application of explicit finite-element techniques to solve dynamic, highly nonlinear problems. He is the primary architect and developer of the FLEX family of codes and has developed versions of FLEX for the complete range of computational hardware available. He developed both small- and large-deformation versions, along with slide lines and other code options that allowed the analysis of contact/impact of continuum and shell-type structures, including the buckling of impacted cylinders. He has also applied the FLEX code to such problems as the effect of an accidental detonation of fuels and deflagration of vapor clouds on nearby structures.

Dr Gerald Harvey received a Ph.D. degree from the University Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K. in 2008 for “An Investigation into the Simulation and Measurement of High Intensity Ultrasonic Systems.” He has worked on the development of novel conformable piezoelectric transducers for the NDE industry in addition to several consultancy programs in transducer design and product realization. In 2007, he joined Rolls-Royce and set-up an NDE Demonstration Cell for the development and progression of research-based NDE technologies to production-ready solutions, reaching the position of Principal Technologist. In 2009, he joined Weidlinger Associates and took up the position of European Manager for the Finite Element Software package, PZFlex. He is a member of the IEEE, BINDT, and a Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the IET.