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 coveted ERC Consolidator Grants. The funding line of the European Research Council (ERC) is aimed at scientists who completed their doctorate between seven and twelve years ago and whose own independent research group is currently in the consolidation phase.
Philipp Junker will receive funding of around two million euros over five years for his research, which aims to efficiently simulate and predict the behaviour of components. The funding is intended to support the scientists in their innovative research projects and the further expansion of their working group.
"Gen-TSM" - Efficient prediction of the stochastic behaviour of components
Random fluctuations are an unavoidable aspect of all physical measurements and production processes.For example, it is not completely clear at exactly which mechanical stress a material will fail or at exactly which point which 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, but at the expense of low resource efficiency.
The aim of the funded project "Gen-TSM" (Generalised Time-Separated Stochastic Mechanics) is to efficiently take into account the measured fluctuations in the material parameters and boundary conditions in numerical simulations. Through a novel representation of all essential variables in stochastic space, a method is to be developed by which the mathematical models are converted into a form whose numerical solution requires only extremely little additional effort compared to deterministic models.In combination with an automation of the derivation of TSM versions of existing deterministic models based on symbolic calculation methods, a general approach is to be developed to efficiently simulate and predict the stochastic behaviour of components and processes.This opens up even greater sustainability in mechanical engineering with reduced costs and increased reliability.
The ERC grants are regarded as an accolade in the European scientific community due to the tough selection process.Important selection criteria are the visionary nature of the research questions and the excellent achievements of the applicants to date.An overview of all ERC grants at LUH, which fund researchers in different career phases (Advanced Grants, Consolidator Grants, Starting Grants), can be found at https://www.uni-hannover.de/en/forschung/profil/herausragende-projekte/erc
Source: LUH/Referat für Kommunikation und Marketing
