Where to look for consulting on small fracture calculation project?

[bumblebee77]

I don't know if this is the right forum to be asking this question... Please feel free to redirect me if not.

I want to calculate how far a fracture can propagate as part of a project I'm doing. The system is not so simple and I have never dealt with stress analysis and fracturing before. I want to hire someone to get me started, but don't know where to look for people. Does anyone have any ideas? It would probably be very simple for someone experienced.

I know enough to know that this kind of problem can be very challenging to deal with, but I'm looking for a very simple approach to start with that makes basic physical sense and that doesn't require expensive, specialized software. I have found a couple of approaches in papers that seem worthwhile (and possible to set up using widely available tools like EXCEL, Matlab, C++, etc), but I would need help with making sure. Or I would be open to alternative approaches. In the future, I would be interested in implementing any calculations in C++ and/or OpenFoam code that I have set up for fluid flow, so it would be a bonus, but not necessary, to find someone who knows about C++ or Matlab or OpenFoam code that is already available.

 

[berkeman]

I don't know if this is the right forum to be asking this question... Please feel free to redirect me if not.

I want to calculate how far a fracture can propagate as part of a project I'm doing. The system is not so simple and I have never dealt with stress analysis and fracturing before. I want to hire someone to get me started, but don't know where to look for people. Does anyone have any ideas? It would probably be very simple for someone experienced.

I know enough to know that this kind of problem can be very challenging to deal with, but I'm looking for a very simple approach to start with that makes basic physical sense and that doesn't require expensive, specialized software. I have found a couple of approaches in papers that seem worthwhile (and possible to set up using widely available tools like EXCEL, Matlab, C++, etc), but I would need help with making sure. Or I would be open to alternative approaches. In the future, I would be interested in implementing any calculations in C++ and/or OpenFoam code that I have set up for fluid flow, so it would be a bonus, but not necessary, to find someone who knows about C++ or Matlab or OpenFoam code that is already available.

What city are you in? You should be able to do an online search for professional consulting MEs, I would think. Alternately, are there any universities near you? You could contact their ME department to see if any of the professors do any consulting...

 

[bumblebee77]

Thank you, Berkeman. I have searched extensively for consultants, but have been surprised to find that few do this kind of work. Most consultants--even professors--seem to be attached to large companies that only deal with very large contracts or they prefer to do independent legal consulting for court cases. I have been wondering if there's some dedicated forum where mechanical engineers congregate and advertise this sort of thing, but I haven't found anything.