Improving the Operation of Irregular Mechanical Systems
The need to improve the performance of complex mechanical systems—such as aeronautic turbomachines, power generation turbines and drilling systems—represents a daunting challenge for myriad key sectors of Canadian industry.
The challenge lies at the crossroads of environmental, economic and security considerations. Owing to extreme operating conditions or the appearance of structural contacts among certain components, these mechanical systems behave in an intrinsically nonlinear manner. As a result, the usual design criteria are not enough to ensure they operate properly. In particular, repetitive structural contacts can generate high vibration amplitudes over frequency ranges that linear analysis cannot predict.
The combination of several diverse phenomena (such as component wear, thermal loads and fluid/structure interactions) makes it all the more difficult to analyze and understand these fundamentally multi-physical mechanical systems, which go beyond the current capabilities of commercial software.
Dr. Alain Batailly, Canada Research Chair in Irregular Mechanical Systems Dynamics and Optimization, is working to develop digital methods that will make it possible to understand, characterize, design and optimize indistinguishable systems.
The research conducted by Batailly and his team will make it possible to optimize mechanical systems in a number of Canada’s key industrial sectors.