Dr Wade Evans began his journey within the field of finite element analysis (FEA) when he began his Doctor of Engineering (DEng) studies at the Durban University of Technology, South Africa, in January 2012. He acquired his DEng in October 2016, where his thesis was entitled, “Crashworthiness analysis of a composite light fixed-wing aircraft including occupants using numerical modelling”. The primary aim of this study was the development and implementation of an explicit nonlinear dynamic finite element based methodology for investigating the crashworthiness of a small lightweight fibre reinforced composite aircraft with occupants. The aircraft was analysed as it crashed into soft soil and the FEA software MSC Dytran was selected for this purpose. The aircraft considered for the purposes of this study was based on a typical four-seater single engine fibre-reinforced plastic composite aircraft. This sparked his passion for FEA and he has never looked back since.
He received various achievements through his studies. These achievements include a best oral presentation (DUT Research Day 2013), best academic paper (ICCBN 2013), top achiever award (Specialist Operations Management Programme 2010), and “MSC Top 10 Simulating Reality Contest” award (http://www.mscsoftware.com/simulating-reality-contest-winners-2014). He has also presented his research at two international conferences (ICCBN 2013 and ICILLS 2014).
Since January 2015, he has been working in the defence industry, where his primary job function was to perform landmine, improvised explosive device (IED), and ballistic simulations for military armoured vehicles. He has been using LS-Dyna since early 2017; however, he has also used MSC Dytran in his studies and in the defence industry from January 2015 to December 2016.
