Tod A Laursen

Research Area(s): Computational Mechanics
Education, Engineering
Structural Engineering
Nonlinear Systems

Tod Laursen received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1992. His earlier degrees were an M.S. from Stanford in 1989 and a B.S. from Oregon State University in 1986. Before joining the Duke faculty in 1992, Dr. Laursen worked as a solid mechanics analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1986 to 1992. He had obtained previous structural analysis experience while working for Boeing in 1985.

At Duke, Dr. Laursen teaches undergraduate courses in engineering computing and engineering science and teaches graduate courses in continuum mechanics, engineering analysis, finite element methods, and the use of finite element methods for the solution of nonlinear problems. His research activities fall largely under these same categories, with a special interest in the modeling of physical systems exhibiting contact and friction phenomena in the presence of large deformations, inelasticity, and other sources of nonlinearity. Applications for this work are to be found in such diverse settings as crashworthiness evaluation for automobiles, wear characterization, metal forming applications, and the geophysical description of slip propagation in fault zones.

Dr. Laursen's published work appears in such journals as the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, Computational Mechanics, International Journal of Solids and Structures, and Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering. He is also the author of the research monograph "Computational Contact and Impact Mechanics," published by Springer in 2002.

Contact via laursen@duke.edu or +1 919 660 5430 (office phone)
Visit via www.duke.edu/~laursen or 166 Hudson Engineering Annex (office location)

TEACHING (Fall 2008)

Representative Publications (More Publications)

1. Upton, Maureen L. and Guilak, Farshid and Laursen, Tod A. and Setton, Lori A., Finite element modeling predictions of region-specific cell-matrix mechanics in the meniscus, Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, vol. 5 no. 2-3 (2006), ppt. 140 - 149 , [s10237-006-0031-4] [abs]
   
2. Trickey, Wendy R. and Baaijens, Frank P.T. and Laursen, Tod A. and Alexopoulos, Leonidas G. and Guilak, Farshid, Determination of the Poisson's ratio of the cell: Recovery properties of chondrocytes after release from complete micropipette aspiration, Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 39 no. 1 (2006), ppt. 78 - 87 , [006] [abs]
   
3. Stanciulescu, Ilinca and Laursen, Tod A., On the interaction of frictional formulations with bifurcation phenomena in hyperelastic steady state rolling calculations, International Journal of Solids and Structures, vol. 43 no. 10 (2006), ppt. 2959 - 2988 , [039] [abs]
   
4. Laursen, Tod A. and Stanciulescu, Ilinca, An algorithm for incorporation of frictional sliding conditions within a steady state rolling framework, Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 22 no. 4 (2006), ppt. 301 - 318 , [815] [abs]
   
5. Baaijens, Frank P.T. and Trickey, Wendy R. and Laursen, Tod A. and Guilak, Farshid, Large deformation finite element analysis of micropipette aspiration to determine the mechanical properties of the chondrocyte, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 33 no. 4 (2005), ppt. 494 - 501 , [s10439-005-2506-3] [abs]
   
6. Yang, Bin and Laursen, Tod A. and Meng, Xiaonong, Two dimensional mortar contact methods for large deformation frictional sliding, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 62 no. 9 (2005), ppt. 1183 - 1225 , [1222] [abs]
   
7. Puso, Michael A. and Laursen, Tod A., A mortar segment-to-segment contact method for large deformation solid mechanics, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 193 no. 6-8 (2004), ppt. 601 - 629 , [010] [abs]
   
8. Puso, Michael A. and Laursen, Tod A., A mortar segment-to-segment frictional contact method for large deformations, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 193 no. 45-47 (2004), ppt. 4891 - 4913 , [001] [abs]
   

• Mary Milus Yoh and Harold L. Yoh, Jr. Endowed Chair, 1999-2003
• Membership in the Bass Society of Fellows, Duke University, 1999-present
• Oregon State University Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers Award, 1998
• Hunt Faculty Scholar, Duke University School of Engineering, 1997-1998
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 1997
• Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 1997
• The Earl I. Brown II Outstanding Civil Engineering Faculty Award, Duke University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1997
• National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award, 1993
• IBM Graduate Fellowship, Stanford University, 1988-89
• Most Outstanding Senior Award, Oregon State University Department of Mechanical Engineering, 1986

• Member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Member, American Society of Civil Engineers
• Professional Member, American Academy of Mechanics
• Member, United States Association for Computational Mechanics
• Member, Tau Beta Pi, The National Engineering Honor Society
• Member, Pi Tau Sigma, National Honorary Mechanical Engineering Fraternity