Reid Parmerter
Professor Emeritus
BS, Physics, California Institute of Technology
Professor Parmerter received an undergraduate degree in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1958. He transferred into the Cal Tech Aeronautics Department to do research in shallow spherical shell stability, and received a PhD in 1963. He joined the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington in the fall of 1963.
Professor Parmerter's primary research interests included static and dynamic photo elasticity, holography, fracture mechanics, viscoelasticity, and plates and shells. During the 1970's he actively participated in AIDJEX (Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment) where he helped to develop a numerical model of ice motion in the Arctic Ocean. As a part of this project, he developed models of small scale ice deformation mechanisms, including ridging and rafting. At the conclusion of AIDJEX he became involved in modeling the small scale constitutive behavior of sea ice, spent a month at the Naval Arctic Research Labs at Barrow doing experiments offshore in the Beaufort Sea, and developed methods to predict ice loads/ride-up on offshore drilling structures.
Research Fields
- Structures
- Solid Mechanics
- Elasticity / Plasticity
- Finite Element Analysis
- Vibrations
- Plates and Shells