5th Conference on Nonlinear Vibrations, Localization and Energy Transfer - NV2014

Keynote speakers

Keynote Lecture 1

Chiara Daraio

Professor of Mechanics of Materials

ETH-Zurich

Zurich, Switzerland


Engineering Extreme Materials with Defects and Nonlinearity

We study the fundamental dynamic response of discrete nonlinear systems and study the effects of defects in the energy localization and propagation. We exploit this understanding to create experimentally novel materials and devices at different scales (for example, for application in energy absorption, acoustic imaging and energy harvesting). We use granular systems as a basic platform for testing, and control the constitutive behavior of the new materials selecting the particles' geometry, their arrangement and materials properties. Ordered arrangements of particles exhibit a highly nonlinear dynamic response, which has opened the door to exciting fundamental physical observations (i.e., compact solitary waves, energy trapping phenomena, and acoustic rectification). This talk will focus on energy localization and redirection in one- and two-dimensional systems.

Biography

Professor Daraio received her 5-year (Laurea) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universita' di Ancona, (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche), Ancona, Italy (2001). She received her M.Sc. (2003) and Ph.D. degrees (2006) in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. The title of her doctoral thesis is "Design of Material Configurations for Enhanced Phononic and Electronic Properties".

After her Ph.D., Chiara joined the Aeronautics and Applied Physics departments of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in fall of 2006, and was promoted to the rank of full professor in December 2010. Chiara joined ETH Zurich in the beginning of 2013. She has been a guest researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (NCEM), a visiting Research Physicist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (San Diego) and won several awards. Among these, she received a Presidential Early Career award from the White House in 2012, a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2011, she was selected as one of the Brilliant 10 scientists in 2010 by Popular Science Magazine, and received an ONR Young Investigator award in 2010. She is also a winner of the NSF CAREER award (2009), and the Richard Von Mises Prize (2008). She published over 70 peer-reviewed papers, two book chapters and numerous patents.


Keynote Lecture 2

Gaëtan Kerschen

Professor of Aerospace Engineering

University of Liège

Liège, Belgium


Normal Modes of Nonlinear Systems: Numerical Computation and Experimental Identification

Today, the demand to utilize nonlinear (or even strongly nonlinear) structural components is increasingly present in engineering applications. In this context, a rigorous nonlinear analog of modal analysis would help engineers address the challenges associated with nonlinear designs. During the past couple of decades, the theory of nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) has been developed for this purpose. In this presentation I will first focus on the direct problem, i.e., the computation of NNMs from mathematical models, and demonstrate that the nonlinear dynamics exhibited by large-scale structures can be interpreted thanks to NNMs. The inverse problem, i.e., how NNMs can be identified from data measured on the structure subjected to harmonic or broadband forcing, will then be described. Both undamped and damped NNMs will be discussed.

Biography

Gaetan Kerschen completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Liège in Belgium, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. In 2004, he was a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the National Technical University of Athens and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working under the supervision of Professors Alexander Vakakis and Lawrence Bergman. Since 2007, he has been a faculty member at the University of Liège, where he is now a professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. His publications are primarily in the areas of nonlinear structural dynamics (including nonlinear system identification, nonlinear modal analysis, constructive utilization of nonlinearity, and bifurcation management) and orbital mechanics. He is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant and serves as an Associate Editor of the Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing Journal.