Nathan Shauer

Research Interests

• Computational Mechanics
• Numerical Methods
• Generalized Finite Element Method
• Fracture Mechanics and Crack Propagation Simulation
• Hydraulic Fracturing
• Mixed Finite Element Methodologies
• High Performance Computing

Awards and Honors

• ABMEC Award for Young Scientists (2024): Conferred by the Brazilian Association of Computational Mechanics to young researchers with significant contributions in the field of Computational Mechanics
• Winner of the 2021 EMI Computational Mechanics Committee Student Presentation Competition
• Winner of the 2021 USNCCM Computational Fluid Mechanics Student Poster Competition
• TechnipFMC Educational Fund Fellowship: (Awarded 3 times: 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020): Fellowship awarded to students based on academic performance and field of research.
• First in Class (2012): Prize from the Regional Council of Engineering, Architecture and Agronomy (CREA) of São Paulo for graduating with honors as student with the highest academic performance

Education

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015--2020

Dissertation: Simulating and Diagnosing Three-dimensional Multistage Hydraulic Fracturing with the Generalized Finite Element Method
Advisor: Carlos Armando Duarte
Department of Structures
Champaign-Urbana, IL, USA

M.Sc. in Civil Engineering at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), 2012--2015

Thesis: Numerical Simulation of Hydraulic Fracture Propagation in Two-dimensional domain with Elastoplasticity
Advisor: Philippe Remy Bernard Devloo
Department of Structures
Campinas, SP, Brazil

B.Sc. in Civil Engineering at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), 2007--2011

Campinas, SP, Brazil

Funding

• TotalEnergies: Research project to develop numerical tools to analyze filtration losses during fluid injection in nonconsolidated media
• Equinor: Research project to develop a multiscale finite element method to simulate flow in fractured porous media
• Fapesp (Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo): Research project to analyze different methodologies do model fracture propagation in orthotropic heterogenous media

Teaching

• Solid Mechanics I: Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, cross-section properties, stresses in beams, deflection of beams
• Check this video I created to explain how the moment of inertia varies with cross-section rotation: Watch Video on YouTube
• Solid Mechanics II: Torsion of beams, linear elasticity theory, failure criteira, buckling
• Introduction to the Finite Element Method: Weak formulation, Galerkin Method, boundary conditions, 1D and 2D elements, mesh generation, post-processing
• I teach the course using a Python object-oriented finite element code called PyFET. Check it out on GitHub!
• I encourage students to use open-source free software such as Gmsh for mesh generation and Paraview for post-processing