Alejandro Ortiz-Bernardin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor / Lab Head
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Universidad de Chile
Av. Beauchef 851, Santiago 8370456, Chile
+56 2 2978 4664
aortizb@uchile.cl

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I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Universidad de Chile, where I conduct research on computational solid mechanics and teach courses on statics, machine elements, finite elements, and advanced methods in computational solid mechanics. I am a Mechanical Engineer and hold a Ph.D. in Civil (Structural) Engineering. I possess 20+ years of experience in mechanical design, structural analysis, finite element analysis and design of large mining equipment, including structural and mechanical design of solid-liquid separation equipment. I serve as a Consulting Engineer in these fields at national and international engineering and mining companies.

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Education

2011	Ph.D.,	Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis (USA) Major: Structural Engineering & Structural Mechanics Minor: Scientific Computing
2006	M.Eng.,	Numerical Methods, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain)
2002	B.Sc.,	Mechanical Engineering, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (Chile)

Professional Appointments

2020 – present	Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Chile
2023 – present	Vice President, Member of the Board of Directors, Chilean Society of Computational Mechanics
2021 – 2023	Vocal, Member of the Board of Directors, Chilean Society of Computational Mechanics
2019 – 2021	Vice President, Member of the Board of Directors, Chilean Society of Computational Mechanics
2011 – 2019	Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Chile
2011 – present	Consultant in mechanical and structural engineering for various companies (Kinross Mining Chile Ltda., Minera Centinela S.A., Minera Spence S.A., Tenova, Outotec (Chile) S.A., Metso, CEC Mining Systems, Fonroche Lighting, among others.)
2007 – 2010	Research Assistant, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis
2006 – present	Engineering Director/Owner, COMECSA Ltda.; private engineering sector
2005 – 2007	Chief Engineer, Engineering and Drawing Office, Tenova-Delkor, Chile Office; private engineering/mining sector
2003 – 2005	Structural Engineer, Department of Engineering, Tersainox S.A.; private manufacturing/engineering sector

Honors and Awards

2016, 2018, 2021	Reconocimiento a la investigación, innovación y creación artística, University of Chile.
2010	Finalist, 22nd Annual Robert J. Melosh Medal Competition for the Best Student Paper on Finite Element Analysis, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
2009	Travel fellowship, 10th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics, Columbus, Ohio, USA
2007 – 2010	Graduate Research Assistantship, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, USA

Research Interests

My primary research interests are related to the formulation of numerical methods and their implementation for computational modeling and simulation of engineering solids and structures and for applications in real-time structural health monitoring. Current research work is on: – Low-order discretization methods for large deformation problems in solid mechanics – Implicit theory of elasticity – Nonlinear continuum theory of dislocations – Supervised learning methods for real-time structural health monitoring – Meshfree and Finite Element Methods – Virtual Element Methods

Research Grants

2022 – 2025	Principal Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1221325, “Development and assessment of a combined nodal integration and virtual element method for small and large deformation solid mechanics simulations”
2021 – 2024	Co-Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1210002, “Mathematical modelling of the mechanical behaviour of rock and concrete using implicit constitutive relations and their subclasses”
2021 – 2025	Co-Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1211314, “Toward zeolite and zeolite-like osteoinductive materials for bone tissue engineering”
2018 – 2021	Principal Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1181192, “Enhancing the robustness of meshfree Galerkin methods for solid mechanics simulations using the virtual element decomposition”
2018 – 2021	Co-Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1181506, “Improving algorithms for the generation of polygonal and polyhedral meshes”
2018 – 2020	Investigador Asociado, FONDEF ID17I10018, “Gestión de Inspecciones en Puentes de Acero basado en Monitoreo y Pronóstico de Daño Mediante Integración de Sensores y Procesamiento de Imágenes”
2016 – 2020	Co-Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1160030, “On the use of implicit constitutive relations to model the behaviour of elastic and inelastic deformations in continua: Applications to the mathematical modelling of rock”
2012 – 2015	Co-Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 1120011, “Study of Some New Constitutive Laws for Elastic Bodies”
2011 – 2014	Principal Investigator, FONDECYT Nº 11110389, “Development and Assessment of An Efficient Numerical Method for Simulation of Nearly Incompressible Large Deformations Problems in Solid Mechanics”

Teaching

Machine Elements (ME5500) Mechanics Statics (ME3130) Finite Element Procedures in Applied Mechanics (ME-708) Advanced Methods in Computational Solid Mechanics (ME-7800)

Publications

Journal Articles Papers in Conference Proceedings Unpublished Documents Doctoral Dissertation

Presentations

Presentations

Professional Society Affiliations

Member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NAFEMS, The International Association for Engineering Modelling, Analysis & Simulation Community Member, International Association for Computational Mechanics Member, Chilean Association for Computational Mechanics