Long-term Abaqus user Bob Johnson has started his own consultancy, REAL FEA, after a career as a mechanical engineer, NAFEMS instructor, and technical editor of Benchmark magazine. He is recognized as one of the leading individuals in the engineering analysis community in the UK. Johnson has also demonstrated his creative genius recreationally, in some very unique ways.
SIMULIA COMMUNITY NEWS: At what point in your life did you know you wanted to become a mechanical engineer?
JOHNSON: I always wanted to be an inventor. I didn’t realize that would equate to being a mechanical engineer, or any sort of engineer for that matter. I just wanted to invent. I was passionate about creating and seeing gears turning, cams going, valves lifting, and that sort of thing.
SCN: When were you first introduced to simulation?
JOHNSON: While working towards my third degree, I took elasticity and loved it. I coded my own FEA system, as well as the finite element force method back in the early 80s. I was meshing completely by hand. To be able to predict what was going to work before you even made it is what fascinated me. It was like being able to see the future.
SCN: What do you think about working with Abaqus FEA software?
JOHNSON: I use whatever software my clients have, yet I’m a massive fan of the Abaqus system because it’s reliable, robust, and trustworthy and that’s a colossal thing. I honestly wouldn’t have a business without a code like that. I’ve been using it since around 1993 and I think what’s great for me is its rigor, the solid foundation that it’s from and, again, its dependability.
SCN: What do you think about how the visualization of results has changed over time?
JOHNSON: I am a great fan of rigorously analyzing results. The potential for something like Abaqus is absolutely enormous. I find the code can do so much more these days and people are making very complicated models, but common sense has gone to the background a bit. I believe in, what I call, the “dinosaur methods” of working on something simple: first a 2D model, then a 3D model with two kinds of symmetry, then maybe your main production model, then perhaps a half-model. It’s a staged approach.
SCN: Tell us about your hobby of running and how you’ve blended that with your passion as an inventor.
JOHNSON: I have been running ever since I was a little kid, for about 50 years. More recently, I have been participating in marathons wearing “fancy dress.” I’ve run the London marathon as Dalek of the Dr. Who television series. That costume took roughly six months to make and weighed over 30 lbs. with no wheels. I had to carry that thing 26 miles and never come out of it! I also ran a marathon in an ostrich costume that I had made which weighed about 21 lbs. That was quite a heavy outfit to carry around. The ostrich idea had been in my head for five years and came to life after my brother no longer could run with me.
SCN: Have you received any accolades for your creative efforts?
JOHNSON: The Guinness Book of World Records caught wind of my ostrich costume and were eager to include me in their book. Normally you have to submit an application to be in the book nine to ten months in advance. Nevertheless, when they saw it, they were amazed by the fact that it was over 20 lbs.— and basically made a new classification for me. They called it “the fastest marathon as a three-dimensional bird.”
Watch this video interview with Bob Johnson of REAL FEA
