Key Contact: David Wagg
Nonlinearity occurs quite naturally in many applications, but despite this it has traditionally been avoided in the design of engineering systems. However, the performance envelope for all engineering structures is being pushed in response to the urgent societal need to find technological solutions for global issues such as climate change, and as a result understanding and controlling nonlinearity is becoming increasingly important in many engineering applications.
A current topical example is the dynamics of large wind turbines. Current research activities include both fundamental and applied work on topics such as nonlinear resonance, nonlinear damping, energy harvesting and energy efficient structures. The group also has expertise in modelling nonlinear structural dynamics using finite element methods, partial- and ordinary-differential equation models, modal testing and analysis for both linear and nonlinear structures, dynamics of composite structures, morphing structures, and cable dynamics.