R.E. PETERSON AWARD

This award was established in 1970 for the best applications paper published in Experimental Mechanics for each two year period ending with the June issue of odd numbered years. In 1973 it was named in honor of Rudolph Earl Peterson. A brief biography and an abridged list of Mr. Peterson’s professional accomplishments follow:

Affiliation: Westinghouse Electric Corporation: 1926 with J.M. Lessells in Mechanics Department; Manager, Mechanics Department, 1931; Consultant, 1965.

Publications: Primarily in stress analysis, stength of materials and design. 60+ papers; chapters in 6 handbooks; book: Stress Concentration Design Factors (Wiley, 1953).

Professional Society Service: SEM: Executive Committee, 1946-47; Vice President, 1947-48; President, 1948-49; ASTM: Fatigue Committee Chairman, 1946-59; Administrative Committee on Simulated Service Testing, 1962; Board of Directors, 1957-60; Executive Committee, Materials Science, Division, 1962. ASME: Fellow; Chairman, Applied Mechanics Division; Chairman, Advisory Board, Applied Mechanics Reviews; Chairman, American Standards Association Committee on Symbols for Mechanics.

Other Accomplishments & Recognition: Founder (1956), Westinghouse Advanced Mechanics School, University of Pittsburgh; Industry Advisory Committee to the National Bureau of Standards; Industrial Advisory Committee of the Pennsylvania State University.

Past Recipients are:

 

2006 R.E. Peterson Award: Indresan Govender, Andrew T. McBride, and Malcolm S. Powell

“Improved Experimental Tracking Techniques for Validating Discrete Element Method Simulations of Tumbling Mills,” Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 44(6), 2004, pp. 593-607

Indresan Govender graduated with a BSc honours in physics, and thereafter completed a teaching Diploma while teaching mathematics and physics to hearing impaired learners. He then pursued a Masters in Applied Science, which eventually culminated in a PhD for developing an automated X-ray vision system to track the 3D trajectories of typical particles within a laboratory mill, the intention of which is to simulate the grinding motion of rock found in industrial mills. His PhD life was also punctuated by a three year stint as lecturer of physics. He is currently a researcher at UCT, focusing on experimental validation of the DEM, a unified comminution model framework, and fundamental power modelling.

Andrew T. McBride obtained his Masters degree in Civil Engineering for research into Discontinuous Deformation Analysis; a numerical formulation for investigating discontinuous block systems. He joined the Comminution Research Group (CRG) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2002 as a researcher focusing on the use of the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to expand the understanding of milling devices. Another key aspect of the research was the experimental validation of DEM for comminution type processes. He is currently pursuing a PhD in computational plasticity at UCT, but remains involved with the CRG.

Dr. Malcolm S. Powell trained in Physics then moved into mineral processing at Mintek, studying the motion of grinding media in mills and the influence of liner design for my PhD. In 1997 I formed the comminution group in the Mineral Processing Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. I specialise in liner design, charge motion and DEM modelling, SAG mill modelling, and classification, with a strong link into applying my knowledge in extensive site work and consulting to industry. We aim to link fundamental research into applied outputs through the development of practical and robust process models.