Research into the behaviour of components in production processes: Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Philipp Junker, professor and managing director at the Institute of Continuum Mechanics at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), has been awarded one of the internationally acclaimed ERC Consolidator Grants. The funding line of the European Research Council (ERC) addresses researchers with seven to twelve years of experience since completion of their doctoral degree whose independent research group is currently in the consolidation phase.
Philipp Junker will receive around two million euros of funding provided over five years for his research, which aims to efficiently simulate and predict the behaviour of components. Researchers receive support for their innovative project and with further expansion of their research group.
Efficiently predicting the stochastic behaviour of components with “Gen-TSM”
Random variation is an unavoidable aspect of all physical measurements and production processes. For example, it is not entirely clear at exactly what level of mechanical stress a material will fail, or at exactly what point a force will act on a component. In engineering calculations, this randomness is usually compensated for by safety factors: Loads are assumed to be too high, maintenance intervals are deliberately set too early. This increases component and production reliability. However, it comes at the cost of low resource efficiency.
The aim of the funded project "Gen-TSM" (Generalised Time-Separated Stochastic Mechanics) is to efficiently account for measured fluctuations in material parameters and boundary conditions in numerical simulations. Through a novel representation of all essential variables in stochastic space, a method will be developed to transform the mathematical models into a form whose numerical solution requires only an extremely small additional effort compared to deterministic models. In combination with an automation to be developed for the derivation of TSM versions of existing deterministic models based on symbolic computational methods, a general approach for the efficient simulation and prediction of the stochastic behaviour of components and processes will be developed. This enables greater sustainability in engineering, reducing costs and increasing reliability.
Due to the tough selection process, ERC Grants are considered the highest accolade awarded by the European Research Council. Important selection criteria include visionary research topics as well as excellent achievements that the applicants have accomplished to date. An overview of all ERC grants at LUH supporting researchers at different career stages (Advanced Grants, Consolidator Grants, Starting Grants) can be found at www.uni-hannover.de/de/forschung/profil/herausragende-projekte/erc/
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