NI2D, a software to analyze non-linear vibrations

Gaëtan Kerschen, Professor at the School of engineering (Aerospace and Mechanics Research Unit) has just been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant to commercialize its non-linear vibration analysis software for companies active in the space, automotive and mechanical fields. This scholarship is the implementation of the ERC Strating Grant he received in 2012.

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on-linear vibrations are common in engineering structures and can result from friction, contact, material stresses and large movements. Non-linear phenomena are most often ignored or avoided in the industry because practitioners do not have a methodology and software to deal with them properly.

The project defended by Gaëtan Kerschen, Professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (UR Aerospace and Mechanics), is to provide companies active in the aerospace, automotive and mechanical industries with a solution for the analysis of non-linear vibrations. More precisely, it wishes to develop and market a non-linear identification software for design (NI2D). NI2D, developed from the results of the NOVIB program (for which the researcher received an ERC Starting Grant), will be the first software capable of accurately quantifying the impact of non-linear vibrations on structures. The unique feature of NI2D is that it can encompass both measured time series and finite element models, allowing the transition from experimental data to design.

NI2D software and associated services will help :

• Shorten test campaigns by appropriate handling of non-linear data.
• Reduce time to market by improving the correlation between measurements and digital data.
• Expand design space through the richness of non-linear behaviors

ERC Proof of Concept

ERC Grants are major instruments deployed by the European Research Council to fund research projects in Europe. The procedure, which is extremely selective, selects only the best researchers and very high-level research projects, combining boldness and competence to tackle new research avenues that, if successful, could substantially enrich knowledge.
There are 5 types of grants: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, Synergy Grants and Proof of Concept

The ERC Proof of Concept call is aimed at researchers who have been awarded an ERC grant (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy Grant) and aims to promote the results of their research and highlight the innovation potential of an idea resulting from their ERC project.

Gaëtan Kerschen

Gaëtan Kerschen is an ordinary professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanics of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of Liège. Graduated as a civil engineer with a specialization in aerospace in 1999, he completed a doctoral thesis at ULiège between 1999 and 2003, which led him to focus on non-linear vibrations of mechanical systems. With funding from the National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), he then conducts post-doctoral research at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. Since 2007 he has been Director of the Laboratory of Space Structures and Systems (Aerospace and Mechanical Research Unit). His research focuses on aerospace structures, satellite orbits and nanosatellite design.