Dr. Sharon Mellings

Sharon Mellings obtained her B.Sc. in Mathematics from Loughborough University of Technology in 1991 and then received her PhD from the Wessex Institute of Technology following research into numerical crack identification using boundary element methods. During this research she worked alongside the researchers who were developing the Dual Boundary Element Method which is used as the basis of the fracture analysis in the current BEASY software.

After her graduation in 1994 she worked as a design engineer at Matra Marconi Space (now ASTRIUM) where she was involved in the stress and thermal design for the manufacture of satellites and satellite components. This experience gave her valuable experience in the practical issues faced in engineering design work.

Sharon returned to the Computational Mechanics group in 1999 to work as a software engineer with BEASY. Since then she has worked in the development and support of the BEASY software, primarily involved with mechanical design and fatigue and crack growth.

Sharon has undertaken many projects in the fatigue and crack growth area of the code and had extensive experience in the practical use of the software. This includes assisting users in support of their own projects, developing new methodologies for crack growth and training users in the use of BEASY Software.

Sharon is a frequent participant at conferences either presenting papers or demonstrating the software in associated exhibitions.