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Profile
“I hate living in cities,” he says. His main workplace is in
Trondheim, a 90-minute drive to the south. Still he prefers to
return to the farmhouse every night. Luckily, he can work from
home part of the time.
Lademo grew up in similar surroundings not far away. His
present dwelling comes from his wife’s family: she took
over the farm according to Norwegian law, where the oldest
child inherits. Today, wife and husband have separate
responsibilities: she milks the cows; he does the harvesting.
CLOSE TO PRACTICALITIES
Ignoring the practical aspects of life is impossible on a farm.
Animals need care, seeds must be sown; something always
needs mending or improving. Odd-Geir Lademo is all the
happier. The swap from basic research to the challenges of
putting knowledge to use suits him just fine.
In his own words:
“Our mission in SFI CASA is to make methods and tools that are
useful for industry, starting out from hands-on experimental
procedures to test materials thoroughly. We also make tools
to organize the experimental results and process the data.
These data are used to develop accurate material models and
numerical simulation tools that industry can use to innovate.”
MANY SHAPES AND FORMS
The Methods and Tools Programme comes in many shapes
and forms. One is taking thousands of images of all kinds
of deformations and strains from different angles in a
digital image correlation system. The pictures are processed
numerically and the results translated. This provides new
fundamental insight into how materials deform and fail, as
well as verifying the data tools used by industry.
The research covers many material classes and variants:
aluminium alloys, steel, polymers, glass, foams, and possibly
a touch of concrete. Each material class or material variant
demands separate attention in terms of test procedures, model
features and test results.
Modern, advanced characterization techniques also open the
path for a deep dive into the materials. Separate tools will be
developed to provide information in scale models that industry
can exploit for applications such as crash analyses.
Tools to store, process and visualize the experimental data are
obviously important, and are well planned.
Everything is gathered in the SIMLab Tool Box with direct
access for all the partners. From there on, the innovation
process at each partner takes over.
MIND THE GAP
Odd-Geir Lademo is just as much affected by CASA’s challenges
as the rest of the team. When the Scientific Advisory Board
says “Mind the Gap”, he takes their point.
“The distance between metres and nanometres is enormous.
We can observe the alloy elements in aluminium at nanoscale,
but we do not know the implications with respect to models,”
he confesses.
All CASA work starts with models formulated at a higher
level. However, it is not self-evident that the researchers
actually manage to reduce the scale and increase it again in
a reasonable manner.
The Scientific Advisory Board pinpointed this issue in their
report from last October:
“We are concerned that atomistic understanding does not
correlate with partner needs.”
This is a challenge, but fortunately it is one that CASA has
every intention to face.
OPTIMIST
As it is, Odd-Geir Lademo loves challenges.
“I am also an incurable optimist. Some say too much so.”
“Most of us have a positive quality that is also our weakest
point. What is yours?”
“I say yes too often. In addition to heading the Methods and
Tools Programme in CASA and holding a position as Adjunct
Professor at NTNU, I am a research manager at SINTEF
Materials and Chemistry. I also head the Parents’ Council
Working Committee at my children’s school. I don’t always
have a good conscience leaving the bulk of the obligations at
the farm to my wife. Luckily, SINTEF allows me to prioritize the
farm in the most critical periods of the spring and harvesting.
Even though the farming is hard work, I like to think of it as
mental relaxation and a good alternative to a mountain cabin.”
AN ANGLER AND A CARPENTER
Our man is closest to paradise when he can bring a tent and a
fishing rod and spend several days fishing in mountain lakes.
He also financed much of his studies fishing. From when the
ice broke up until it covered the Leksdalsvatnet lake again in
the autumn he would get up early with his father and see to the
nets. The record catch was 309 trout in one night. Shops in the
neighbouring villages were good customers.
At high school, he first aimed at becoming a carpenter. Through
this practical experience and education, he gradually became
more interested in school work and theory. He completed his
master’s degree in Structural Engineering in 1992, having
Professor Magnus Langseth as his supervisor for his diploma
on blast loading.
He completed his PhD on materials modelling of aluminium
alloys in 1999, having Odd Sture Hopperstad and Magnus
Langseth as a strong supervisory duo. He then started working
in SINTEF, still nurturing the strong link to NTNU, and the
subject area of his PhD.
He is still there, but not all of him. Rather, he feels privileged
to have two sets of tools: one at CASA and one on the farm.
HEAD
of Tools
On top of a hill in Verdal lies a farmhouse with the most spectacular view of the valley below.
It is the home of Odd-Geir Lademo, head of CASA’s Methods and Tools Programme.