Expertise

The KU Leuven (University of Leuven) was founded in 1425 and is one of the oldest universities in Europe and the largest one in Belgium. It has 40257 students and a staff of 9848, with 14 faculties covering all disciplines all disciplines in humanities, life sciences, physical sciences & engineering. The mission of the university is threefold: education, research and service to community and industry. It is the explicit policy to transfer knowledge and experience gained in research to students in different levels of education.

The PMA division of the department of Mechanical Engineering performs research in production engineering, machine design and automation and has a staff of about 150 co-workers. The Noise and Vibration Research Group, which is part of PMA, is one of the world-leading research groups in noise and vibration engineering. This group counts 8 permanent staff members, 8 post-doctoral senior researchers and 59 pre-doctoral junior researchers.

The activities of the research group are clustered around 5 major research lines: (i) large bandwidth dynamics of lightweight systems, (ii) multibody dynamics, (iii) optimal parameter and state estimation/experimental identification, (iv) smart system dynamics and (v) robust optimal control. The group combines expert knowledge of dynamics and mechatronics into a renewed context of emerging themes, such as techniques that can be used in-situ and on-line and through the entire lifetime of (connected) mechatronic systems. The group holds two applications roadmaps: (i) the development of lightweight, compact acoustic resonant metamaterials with enhanced vibroacoustic behaviour and (ii) research on coupled state/parameter/input estimators with application in virtual sensing applications such as a mechanical stress camera.

Participation in EU Projects and International Activities

Throughout the years, the Noise and Vibration Research Group has been actively involved in many national and international research projects and thematic networks, relevant to vehicle engineering.

These include European research projects (past FP4, FP5, FP6 and on-going FP7 and H2020) such as ALIVE, ASANCA, ASANCA II, ANRAVA, BRAIN, CANTOR, DAFNOR, ECOSYSTEMS, ENLIGHT, ENOVNET, EMBOCON, ESTOMAD, FATYNAMICS, IDEAL-VENT, INMAR, MID-MOD, NOISELESS, PIANO, SALOMO, SEANET, SMARTACUS, SOQCRATES, TECABS, VAMP, PBNv2 and ECO DRIVE.

Next to these, KU Leuven is involved in Marie Curie training projects such as AETHER, EDSVS I and II, MADUSE, SIM-VIA2, VECOM, IMESCON, ANADE, FLOWAIRS, INTERACTIVE, SUPERPANELS, GRESIMO, MAREWINT, Smart Structures CAE, EXPLICA, MID-FREQUENCY, TIRE-DYN, PAM, EMVeM, ANTARES and eLiQuiD, coordinating the latter 8 projects.