About FractureLab

FractureLab, LLC was founded in 2010 by Dr. Richard Pettit, after 25 years in the aerospace industry at McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, NASA, the Cornell Fracture Group, and Pratt & Whitney, where he served as a fracture mechanics specialist within the Core Structures Organization.  While at Pratt, Dr. Pettit managed the company internal fracture codes, taught fracture mechanics courses in the Engineering Technical University, and served on a FAA sponsored industry committee to provide technical input for development of the DARWIN code, including high temperature code functions such as Thermal Mechanical Fatigue Crack Growth.  He also headed the Pratt portion of a USAF sponsored contract to assist the developers of FRANC3D with fracture simulation algorithms for non-planar crack growth including the effects of anisotropy and non-proportional loading.  Perhaps more importantly, he has spent thousands of hours on the ground solving, and helping others solve, real-world problems in fracture mechanics.  He continues to do the same at FractureLab.

Contact Rick Pettit