Robbie Balcombe
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Technical Director at COMSOL UK
Robbie Balcombe graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2007 with a MEng in Aero-Mechanical Engineering, and then carried out his PhD in the area of numerical modelling of rolling contact fatigue at Imperial College London.
Teaching
Robbie Balcombe has been involved with teaching computational modeling and the use of COMSOL Multiphysics for over 10 years. Topics covered include structural mechanics, structural dynamics, nonlinear structural materials, acoustics, fatigue, equation-based modelling, geomechanics, meshing and solvers, and numerical optimization.
This teaching has been delivered to both academia and industry at Masters, pre-, and post-doctoral levels.
Research
His journey with computational modeling began with PhD research into rolling contact fatigue in roller bearings, conducted at Imperial College London between 2007 and 2011. The modeling work involved studying the fluid-structure interaction problem of lubricant/crack interactions in rolling contact fatigue cracks in bearings. The work was sponsored by SKF.
The modeling work was based on the development of a novel and coupled finite volume (CFD) and boundary element (crack) code that was then combined with fracture mechanics and semi-empirical fracture models to predict the direction and rate of crack propagation. This led to a publication in a top-tier journal as well several international conference contributions.
On the completion of this research Robbie joined COMSOL in 2011.
Numerical Simulation and COMSOL Multiphysics
As a specialist in structural mechanics at COMSOL UK since 2011 Robbie has worked on a wide variety of structural mechanics models’ across, linear and nonlinear materials, statics and dynamics and combining different element types and formulations for both academic institutions and industry.