Politecnico di Torino announces EXPERTISE European Training Network beneficiaries

The University of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science (led by Professor David Hills) is one of the beneficiaries in the 48 month Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network consortium EXPERTISE, which is being coordinated by the Politecnico di Torino in Italy.

EXPERTISE is a European Training Network that will contribute to train the next generation of mechanical and computer science engineers with a common basic knowledge on the challenges, the paradigms, the technologies and the methodologies in the field of nonlinear structural dynamics of turbomachinery and High Performance Computing.

15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) are being recruited by the beneficiaries of the Consortium. The 15 international young researchers will work to improve the virtual testing of turbines. Simulation is crucial in designing turbomachinery, which is useful in many sectors, from aircraft engines to hydrocarbons extraction and energy production. Among disruptive technologies for energy and mobility, says the Politecnico, turbines will play a major role and the European research community needs to prepare for the upcoming challenges.

The research activities in the EXPERTISE Training Network are organized into 15 individual research projects, one per each of the Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) recruited for the Project.  The Politecnico hopes that “The exchange between those young researchers involved in the project will contribute to create a new generation of international researchers used to tackle complex challenges by working in teams”.

Professor David Hills of the Department’s Solid Mechanics & Materials Engineering Group and the ESR for Oxford Hendrik Andresen are working on ESR1 – ‘Damping and shakedown of frictional contacts in partial slip’ within Work Package 1 ‘Advanced modelling of friction contact’. This work package aims at improving the understanding of the physics of friction contacts in order to develop and validate advanced models for dynamic simulations of turbomachinery models. 

More information about the project can be found on the Expertise project website.