Research Group at McGill University

Mechanical Vibrations and Fluid Structure Interaction

The group of Mechanical Vibrations and Fluid Structure Interaction at McGill University, Montreal, is led by Professor Marco Amabili. We study nonlinear dynamics (how a small change in one variable can lead to a large, systemic change) and stability, fluid-structure interactions, and active control of shell structures, particularly for aeronautical and underwater vehicles.

The increasing need to produce lighter-weight aerospace shell structures has led to the use of advanced material systems and the demand for new design methods to guide product development. Our group is seeking to develop solutions to open problems in the nonlinear dynamics of shell structures through groundbreaking innovations in experimental, theoretical and numerical techniques. In this perspective our work merge branches of research that have in the past developed separately (e.g., nonlinear dynamics of aerospace and underwater vehicles), but that have many problems in common.

Our areas of expertise include geometrically nonlinear vibrations of thin walled structures, shells and plates, nonlinear and chaotic vibrations, determination of dynamic damping, vibrations of biomedical devices, vibrations of microsystems, vibrations of pipes and slender structures in contact with fluid, active control of mechanical vibrations, modal analysis, vibrations of metallic, composite, laminated, functionally graded and visco- or hyper-elastic materials, vibrations of tanks and sloshing.

The group teaches courses on the vibrations of continuous systems, participates to relevant conferences worldwide and is actively involved in the publication of papers on international scientific journals. A state of the art apparatus is available for numerical and experimental activity in collaborations with the world of academia and industry.