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Ted Belytschko
Walter P. Murphy Professor and McCormick Professor

Editor, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Northwestern University
2145 Sheridan Road, Rm. B224
Evanston, IL 60208-3111,

TEL: 847-491-7270
FAX: 847-491-3915

tedbelytschko@northwestern.edu

link to research site

B.S., Engineering Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology (1965)
Ph.D. Mechanics, Illinois Institute of Technology (1968)

Honors and Awards

  • Editor, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
  • Member, National Academy of Engineering, elected 1992
  • Honorary Doctorate, INSA, Universite Lyon, September 2006
  • Honorary Doctorate, Ecole Normale, Paris 2004 
  • Honorary Doctorate, University of Liege, 1997
  • Honorary Professor, Hunan University 
  • Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, elected 2002
  • Gauss-Newton Medal, International Association for Computational Mechanics 2002
  • John von Neumann Medal, U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics, 2001
  • Timoshenko Medal, ASME, 2001
  • Theodore von Karman Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 1999
  • Mel Baron Medal, The Shock and Vibration Information Analysis Center (SAVIAC), 1999
  • Walter Huber Research Prize, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1977
  • Jaeger Prize, International Association for Structural mechanics in Reactor Technology, 1983, 4th most cited research in engineering ISI, January 2004
  • ISI 93 Most Highly Cited Researchers in Engineering, ISI Original Member 200 Most Highly Cited Researchers, 4th most cited engineering in past decade (January 2004)
  • Founding Editor, Engineering with Computers
  • Computational Mechanics Award, International Association for Computational Mechanics, 1994
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1975
  • ICES Gold Medal, International Conference on Computational Engineering and Science, 1997
  • Fellow, International Association for Computational Mechanics
  • Fellow, US Association for Computational Mechanics,
  • Fellow, ASME
  • Computational Mechanics Award, Japanese Soc. of Mechanical Engineers, 1994
  • Structural Computational Mechanics Award, US Association for Computational Mechanics, 1997

Computational mechanics; finite elements and computer aided engineering; multiscale computational methods

Professor Belytschko is interested in computational methods for modeling the behavior of solids, with particular emphasis on failure and fracture. He has developed new meshfree methods and the extended finite element method for modeling arbitrary crack growth without remeshing and applied them to a variety of crack growth problems, both static and dynamic. He is also using molecular mechanics to study the fracture and behavior of nanotubes and developing methods for coupling heterogeneous subdomains, such as molecular and continuum models.

In the classroom

Ted Belytschko chaired the committee which developed the Engineering First program at Northwestern. He also collaborated with Cate Brinson in introducing finite element and matrix concepts into strength of materials and statics courses. At the graduate level, he teaches nonlinear and linear finite elements.  This has led to the book, Nonlinear Finite Elements for Continua and Structures.

Selected publications

T. Belytschko, W. K. Liu, and B. Moran, Nonlinear Finite Elements for Continua and Structures, Wiley (2000)

T. Belytschko, Y. Y. Lu and L. Gu, “Element-Free Galerkin Methods,” International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 37, 229-256 (1994)

S. L. Mielke, D.Troya, S. Zhang, J-l Li, S. Xiao, R. Car, R.S. Ruoff, G.C. Schatz, T. Belytschko, "The role of vacancy defects and holes in the fracture of carbon nanotubes," Chemical Physics Letters, 390 (4-6): 413-420 (June 2004)

N. Moes, J. Dolbow and T. Belytschko, “A Finite Element Method for Crack Growth without Remeshing,”International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, Volume 46 (1): 131-150 (1999)

T. Rabczuk, T. Belytschko, "Cracking particles: a simplified meshfree method for arbitrary evolving cracks," International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 61: 2316-2343 (2004)

01/01 T. Belytschko, N. Moes, S. Usui, and C. Parimi, “Arbitrary discontinuities in finite elements,” International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 50 (4): 993-1013 (2001) ONR