Lead Modeling and Simulation Analyst & Developer
Biography
Chris Chartrand is a member of the Water Power Technologies Program at Sandia National Laboratories. His research concentrates on the implementation and development of numerical models for simulating wave, tidal, and current energy capture devices. He is the developer of the WEC power absorption models implemented into SNL-SWAN, and the CEC power absorption models in SNL-Delft3D for use in current turbine modeling. Chris has worked in the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for more than 17 years, where he has led numerical code development such as implementation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and Six Degree of Freedom (6DOF) solvers into complex CFD codes. He has led CFD research using RANS and LES calculations of both compressible and incompressible flows for renewable energy, military, and aerospace applications.
Chris received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics, his master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts. His graduate work focused on the theoretical development and numerical implementation of stochastic methods for modeling the Reynolds Stress term of the RANS equations, and his doctoral dissertation was on the development of a new hybrid particle-mesh simulation method for solving multi-phase, incompressible flow problems.
