Student Highlights: Ben Griner
— MEET BEN —
Class: Junior
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Ben Griner grew up in Casper and is currently a junior at the University of Wyoming majoring in mechanical engineering. While not originally a STEM major, Ben was eventually drawn to engineering through a growing interest in renewable and clean energy solutions. In the future, he hopes to gain experience in nuclear energy or other renewable energy industries. Outside of school, Ben enjoys hiking, gaming, and watching movies to relax.
— BEN’S RESEARCH —
Ben’s research focuses on investigating and modeling the failure behavior of woven composite materials. Woven composites are nonhomogeneous materials made of fibers embedded in another material called the matrix. They have complex deformation and failure mechanisms, making them challenging to predict. Understanding their failure behavior is critical because they are widely used in industries like aerospace and wind energy, serving as one of the key materials in fuselages and turbine blades. To study this, Ben uses Abaqus, a finite element analysis (FEA) software, to simulate material properties like stress and strain under different loads. Ben hopes that this work can help to develop safer, more energy-efficient, and cost-effective engineering solutions.
ABOUT STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS
Every year, we award fellowships to graduate and undergraduate students attending the University of Wyoming or Wyoming’s community colleges in order to provide them with funding to engage in real-world research opportunities. Occasionally, we feature one of these students and their research on this blog. For more information about our student fellowships, visit our College Programs page.