Daniel W. Spring

Dr. Spring joined the Applied Research & Development Team at E2G in 2015 and currently serves as a Consulting Researcher. As a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his Ph.D. research focused on computational fracture mechanics with an emphasis on the use of cohesive zone models for simulating quasi-static and dynamic crack propagation. He developed a novel method for addressing a longstanding critique of the cohesive element method, mesh dependency, through the use of adaptive topological operators on polygonal discretizations. Additionally, he developed a new constitutive relation for crack face unloading that maintains thermodynamic consistency within the cohesive zone, which can be of particular importance when simulating fatigue crack propagation and self-healing behavior.

The second component of Dr. Spring’s research focused on composite materials. In this field, his contributions include developing a solution for the influence of nanoscale interphases on the macroscale mechanical response of particle-reinforced elastomers under large deformations. Additionally, he developed a computational framework to study the influence of interfacial debonding on the macroscopic softening of particle-reinforced polymers.