The Tribomechadynamics Research Camp (TRC) is a month long research collaboration for students from the postdoctoral level to the high school level. The next TRC will be in 2025 at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. The goal of the TRC is to bring together participants with diverse technical backgrounds from around the world to work in small teams on projects germane to interfacial mechanics and the dynamics of coupled structures. It is our hope that this experience will help form lasting collaborations and make significant progress towards solving several of the major challenges in these research areas. There is no registration fee.
Important dates for the next TRC are:
- April 1st, Applications are due
- April 15th, Acceptance notifications and team assignments will be sent out
- May 1st, Homework assignments and team meetings will be scheduled
- July 21st, the TRC begins in Stuttgart
- August 22nd, the TRC concludes
- August 25th-27th, the Tribomechadynamics 2025 conference will be hosted at the University of Stuttgart
Information for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers
The primary thrust of the Tribomechadynamics Research Camp is a research activity in which teams of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers collaborate to investigate problems at the forefront of interfacial dynamics. The Research Camp is the successor to the Nonlinear Dynamics of Coupled Structures and Interfaces Summer program, which was hosted by Rice University and Imperial College London from 2017-2018. Past projects have included investigations of wear evolving hysteresis models for joint mechanics, in situ measurements of contact pressure within a bolted interface, the experimental investigation of the local kinematics of an interface using digital image correlation, and comparison of different methods (such as comparing the suitability of the asymptotic numerical method against the harmonic balance method for modeling nonlinear systems with friction).
Applications for participation will include a copy of your CV, a letter of recommendation by your advisor including a statement that your home institution covers your travel expenses, and a cover letter detailing your research interests and project preference. Specific projects for the 2025 TRC and their preliminary descriptions are briefly outlined below; the final project descriptions will be updated by January 1, 2025:
- Project 1: Investigation of Time Forecasting Methods for Hysteretic Systems
With the maturation of time forecasting methods and other data-driven prediction methods for time domain responses, the goal of this project is to investigate the suitability of these methods for predicting the transient responses of hysteretic systems. This novel application of data science to hysteretic systems will study the efficacy of these methods to predict the responses of the system in two different regimes: steady-state harmonic forcing and transient ring-down and shock response. The primary goal of this project will be to assess the applicability of these methods for improving frequency domain calculations for hysteretic systems, which necessitate transient solutions as part of the alternating frequency time algorithm. If time provides, a secondary goal will be to assess the suitability of these methods to predict shock response of systems. - Project 2: Interplay Between Recurrent Shocks Due to an Impact Absorber and Friction Damping
This experimental project will utilize the impact absorber test rig from https://doi.org/10.25518/2684-6500.126. This test rig is a cantilevered beam subjected to base excitation with a spherical impactor in a cavity at the beam’s tip. The system was designed to reduce the effect of friction in the clamping of the beam. In the proposed project, the influence of added frictional damping will be investigated with a focus on the tradeoff of dissipation via friction and dissipation via impact damping. The primary goal of this project is to assess a semi-analytical method for predicting the vibration mitigation efficacy of the friction-damped system with impact absorber, as function of the excitation level. The method is an extension of the work in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2021.116527 from a linear to a nonlinear mode. The method relies on single-nonlinear-mode theory and experimentally extracted amplitude-dependent modal properties. The secondary goal is to understand how the friction sheets affect the impact-induced inter-modal energy transfer. The instantaneous modal contributions can be determined via multi-point vibrometry. - Project 3: Understanding the Dynamics of Friction-Damped Structures Under Complicated Resonance Scenarios
This project will be both experimental and computational. The largest part of research on friction-damped structures is restricted to primary resonances. Using the Rubbing Beam Resonator (RubBeR) test rig from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2020.115580, which is well modeled near the primary resonance by a simple model (Euler-Bernoulli beam with a single Jenkins element), this project will investigate the influence of the location of the friction element and its preload. Internal resonances and superharmonics are expected
Note that participation in the Research Camp will give European-based students credit for attending English-based conferences and workshops. Certificates of completion/participation will be made to assist with this. There are no registration fees to participate.