Dr. Daniel W. Barnette received his MS degree in Aerospace Engineering
from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Aeronautics/Astronautics
from Stanford University in 1984. His Master's Thesis at UT-Austin involved
experimental and theoretical analysis of the exhaust blow-by effects on a
rocket while exiting from a launch tube. In addition, he conducted high-speed
(Mach 5) wind tunnel tests for NASA-Johnson in Houston. These tests simulated
the bow and wing shock wave interactions near the wing root region of the
space shuttle. His PhD dissertation at Stanford was on innovative solution algorithms
for the finite-differenced parabolized Navier-Stokes equations.
Arriving at Sandia in 1977, Dr. Barnette was hired into the
Aeroballistics Division. He helped conduct and analyze wind tunnel tests while
also working with 6-degree of freedom computer codes. He took Stanford courses
over the televised network during the first few years at Sandia, and then
applied for, and was granted, the opportunity to attend Stanford University
under Sandia's Doctoral Studies Program. While at Stanford, he attended the
well-known Peninsula Bible Church where he met his future wife,
Rachelle Lee Stern. He returned to Sandia in the fall of 1983 to continue
working in the Aeroballistics Division. In 1993, he joined the
Parallel Computational Sciences Department within Sandia.
During his career
at Sandia he has worked in the areas of rigid and non-rigid body dynamics;
grid generation; visual graphics programs to view and analyze computational
simulations; flow solvers using multiple overset (generically overlapped)
computational grids; Navier-Stokes flow solutions on Sandia's parallel
compute clusters; genetic algorithms on parallel compute clusters and
implementing the resulting search algorithms on Sandia's RATLER robotic vehicles; evaluation testing for supporting
and maintaining Intel's Teraflops Supercomputer (ASCI Red) at Sandia; and development of
test, evaluation, and database software for Sandia's clusters and
supercomputers.
In particular, Dr. Barnette has developed and implemented
a domain decomposition method for use with overset grids used in 3-D Navier-Stokes
solvers on massively parallel computers.
Proof of concept of this approach was conducted for simulated ocean flow in the Gulf of
Mexico and Greater Antilles islands. He has also conducted research into the area of
automated grid generation through tight coupling of the flow solver and the grid
generation process. U.S. patents have been granted for both the parallel overset grid
method and the automated grid generation technique.
As of 2009, he is project lead for a team whose task it is to
analyze and model supercomputer performance. The team strives to aid
software development teams, hardware acquisition teams, management,
co-workers, and colleagues in understanding and applying methodologies for
obtaining the highest possible performance.
Dr. Barnette and his wife, Rachelle, have 3 sons: Travis,
Trevor, and Taylor. As of March, 2009, Travis attends New Mexico Institute
of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech), Trevor expects to soon be
working and living in Albuquerque, and Taylor attends Hobart & William Smith
College in Geneva, NY. Daniel and Rachelle reside
in Veguita, a rural farming section of New Mexico in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, along the Rio Grande River,
approximately
60 miles south of Albuquerque.
