National Science Foundation grant awarded to D’Souza

Kiran D’Souza, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant for his project, “Analyzing and Exploiting Hybrid Dynamical Systems Containing Piecewise Linear Nonlinearities”.

“This research will provide new understanding and analysis tools for systems that contain nonlinearities due to intermittent contact, friction contact, cracks, large displacement joints and stiffness changes,” explained D’Souza.

The proposed project will have a number of impacts and applications, including aircraft design, structural damage detection, nonlinear vibration analysis and energy harvesting; it can profoundly affect how many fields conduct analysis of complex piecewise nonlinear systems. Building on the current computational expertise of the Gas Turbine Laboratory, which D’Souza co-directs, the project will also complement ongoing experimental programs.

The research activities will not only advance the understanding of systems, but also be heavily integrated with strong educational components and outreach activities for graduate and undergraduate students.

The award totals $413,876 and will fund the study from May 2019 – April 2023.

by Jonathon Miles, department communications intern