Ulrich (Uli) Heisserer, DSM Materials Science Center

 Ulrich

Uli is a civil engineer by training who likes to cross borders. After school, he first studied philosophy at the Hochschule for Philosophy SJ in Munich, switched after two full-time years to civil engineering at the TU Munich. There he obtained his PhD on numerical methods (high order finite elements) to solve partial differential equations for nonlinear problems in a German-Israeli project with the Ben-Gurion University. During this time, he still liked to attend selected seminars in philosophy, mainly about social-ethics, bio-ethics, and philosophy of nature. In his free time, he was active in Scouting at many levels. That period ended when he moved to Aachen, where Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands meet. In 2007, he started commuting over the border to the Dutch side to work as a material’s scientist at DSM, a multi-national life science and materials science chemical company with over 20.000 employees that was just listed #2 on Fortune Magazine's ‘Change the World’ list. At DSM’s Materials Science Center, he is involved in understanding and improving polymeric high-performance fibers and composites (Dyneema®) that safe lives in light weight armor. For this effort, he collaborates with many universities and institutions globally. Together with his colleague Harm van der Werff in 2013 Uli won the DSM Science award for ‘Breakthrough modelling of Dyneema® armor performance’ resulting in new fibers now successfully used in improved ballistic vests of many police departments globally. Furthermore, he is working on stiff and string lightweight composites that are necessary to reduce the CO2 emissions of future mobility.

 

Selected Publications

van Werff, H. & Heisserer, U. (2016) in: Chen, X. (Ed.) Chapter High Performance Ballistic Fibres: Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) Advanced Fibrous Composite Materials for Ballistic Protection, Woodhead.

Heisserer, U., Hartmann, S., Düster, A., & Yosibash, Z. (2008). On volumetric locking-free behaviour of p-version finite elements under finite deformations. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering, 24(11), 1019-1032.

Yosibash, Z., Hartmann, S., Heisserer, U., Düster, A., Rank, E., & Szanto, M. (2007). Axisymmetric pressure boundary loading for finite deformation analysis using p-FEM. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 196(7), 1261-1277. 

Lässig, T., Nguyen, L., May, M., Riedel, W., Heisserer, U., van der Werff, H., & Hiermaier, S. (2015). A non-linear orthotropic hydrocode model for ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene in impact simulations. International Journal of Impact Engineering, 75(0), 110-122

Chocron, S., Nicholls, A., King, N., Bigger, R., Walker, J., Heisserer, U., & van der Werff, H. (2013). Impacts and waves in Dyneema® HB80 Strips and Laminates. Journal of Applied Mechanics, 1, 472-481.

Heisserer, U., Hartmann, S., Düster, A., Bier, W., Yosibash, Z., & Rank, E. (2008). p-FEM for finite deformation powder compaction. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 197(6), 727-740.

Heisserer, U. (2008). High-order finite elements for material and geometric nonlinear finite strain problems. Dissertation, Technische Universität München, München.