As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, David R. Steward, Professor, Walter B. Booth Distinguished Professorship, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, will present: Analytic element method solutions extend computational frontiers in interdisciplinary hydrosciences and beyond.
More information
How can analytic solutions help us to better understand the problems we face in earth sciences, civil engineering and related applications? New advances using the Analytic Element Method (AEM) employ straightforward mathematical methods to achieve nearly-exact solutions, and extend the frontier of computational methods. Wide-ranging examples are presented for problems in: groundwater/surface water interactions, well hydraulics, fractures and heterogeneities with groundwater flow, vadose zone processes in heterogeneous soils, and capture zones to identify the source of groundwater uptake by plants. Coastal engineering applications model near-shore wave interactions as well as the propagation of tsunamis through bathymetric shoals. Related AEM solutions exist to study thermal conduction, electrical conduction, fluid flow, gravity waves and acoustics, and elastic deformations. This presentation introduces recent advances in Steward (2020), "Analytic Element Method: Complex Interactions of Boundaries and Interfaces". A live-demonstration will show how to easily use open-source computer code, available from the companion website at Oxford University Press.
Speaker bio
Prof. David R. Steward holds the Walter B. Booth Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. He received degrees in: PhD Civil Engineering, MS Civil Engineering, MS Mathematics, and BS Civil Engineering; all from the University of Minnesota. Academic appointments began as post-doctoral research associate at the University of Minnesota and in Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, before faculty appointment at Kansas State University and North Dakota State University. Prof. Steward leads a research program addressing the grand challenge of water resources for society through two complementary approaches. One research focus is interdisciplinary water resources studies with collaborations across colleges of agriculture, architecture, arts & sciences, education, engineering, and veterinary medicine. These endeavors have been funded as lead or co-principal investigator from funding agencies such as NSF, USDA, US EPA, and many other local and international agencies and consulting firms. Discovery of the critical factors that control water resources systems have been identified through these collective interactions, results have been disseminated in the best journals, and actively communicated with a wide range of water stakeholders. The second research focus is development of advanced methods of mathematical analysis for engineering problems using the Analytic Element Method. The AEM has emerged over decades of groundwater studies, and enables nearly exact solutions to study complicated interactions of flow through aquifer features. The methods of the AEM have been extended to a broad range of engineering applications, and presented comprehensively in recent book with Oxford University Press, available at: global.oup.com/academic/product/analytic-element-method-9780198856788
The University of Waterloo is committed to achieving barrier-free accessibility for persons with disabilities who are visiting, studying or working at Waterloo. If you have questions concerning access or wish to request accommodations for this event, please contact Julie Grant (j26grant@uwaterloo.ca)