Seminar on Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Design

13 Mar 2024 10.00 AM - 11.00 AM MAE Meeting Room B (Blk N3-02b-65) Current Students, Public

Professor Marian Wiercigroch FRSE

University of Aberdeen, UK

This seminar will be chaired by Prof Zhou Kun, Associate Chair (Research)

Seminar Abstract

In this lecture I will paint a broad picture of the nonlinear world and examine implications of this view on science and engineering. Through carefully chosen examples from everyday life, science and engineering I will show just how nonlinear and dynamic our world really is. 

In the first part, I will define nonlinearity and nonlinear dynamics.  Specifically I will focus on a class called non-smooth dynamical systems. Then I will show how such problems can be effectively modelled and analysed by low dimensional dynamical systems [1,2]. The generic complexity of non-smooth dynamics will be demonstrated by an elastic impact oscillator – an archetypal model for the high frequency vibro-impact drilling [3,5]. 

The second part will be devoted to what we might call Nonlinear Dynamics for Smart Engineering Design where I will present results from my recent projects, where nonlinear dynamic interactions have been used to enhance the performance of real systems and structures. I will put a special emphasis on one large projects from energy industry, where we have developed a revolutionary downhole drilling technology [5] tested in our unique drilling laboratories [6,7]. I will argue that this would not be possible in a linear and static world! 

  1. Ing, J., Pavlovskaia, E., Wiercigroch, M. and Banerjee, S. Bifurcation analysis of an impact oscillator with one sided elastic constraint near grazing, Physica D 239, 312-321, 2010
  2. Cao, Q. Wiercigroch, M., Pavlovskaia, E.E., Thompson, J.M.T. and Grebogi, C. Piecewise linear approach to an archetypal oscillator for smooth and discontinuous dynamics. Phil T  Roy Soc A 366, 635-652, 2008.
  3. Pavlovskaia, E.E., Wiercigroch, M. and Grebogi, C. Modelling of an impact system with a drift. Phys Rev E 64, 056224, 2001.
  4. Wiercigroch, M., Wojewoda, J. and Krivtsov, A.M. Dynamics of ultrasonic percussive drilling of hard rocks. J Sound Vib 280(3-5), 739-757, 2005.
  5. Wiercigroch, M. Resonance Enhanced Drilling: Method and Apparatus. Patent No WO2007141550, 2007.
  6. Kapitaniak, M., Vaziri, V., Paez, J., Nandakumar, K. and Wiercigroch, M. Unveiling complexities of drill-string vibrations: Experiments and modelling, Int J  Mech Sci 101-102, 324-337, 2015.  
  7. Liao, M., Wiercigroch, M., Sayah, M., Ing, J., 2021 Experimental verification of the percussive drilling model.  Mech Syst Signal Process 146, 107067.
Speaker’s Biography​

Professor Marian Wiercigroch educated in Poland, US and UK holds a prestigious Sixth Century Chair in Applied Dynamics and he is a founding director of the Centre for Applied Dynamics Research at the University of Aberdeen. 

His area of research is theoretical and experimental nonlinear dynamics, which he applies to various engineering problems. Wiercigroch has published extensively (over 500 journal and conference papers) and sits on a dozen editorial boards of peer review journals. He is a frequent keynote and plenary speaker at major international conferences and the Editor-In-Chief of International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, a premier journal in mechanics and mechanical engineering. 

He is the inventor of new patented drilling technology called Resonance Enhanced Drilling and the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of a spinoff company iVDynamics Ltd.  He has established in Aberdeen unique experimental laboratories allowing to investigate complex nonlinear dynamic interactions in mechanical systems with the focus on energy generation.   

He has received many awards and distinctions including a Senior Fulbright Scholarship (1994), Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2009), DSc honoris causa from the Lodz University of Technology (2013), Distinguished Professorships at the Perm National Research Polytechnic University (2017), Balseiro Institute (2018) and Yanshan University (2021). Marian is a Scottish Champion of Knowledge Exchange (2020) and he served as a panelist in the Research Excellence Framework (2014, 2021), which assess the quality of research in the UK.

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