Our Team

Margaux Geuzaine

"When dealing with wind loaded onshore structures, the Multiple Timescale Spectral Analysis hinges on the existence of well separated timescales in their dynamical behavior to provide simple analytical formulas for the statistics of their response, that allow to analyze them 100 to 1000 times faster than traditional methods. The purpose of the PhD thesis of Margaux Geuzaine is to extend this method to wave-loaded offshore structures, such as wind turbines, solar platforms or floating bridges, in order to give engineers the opportunity to optimize them, by clarifying the role of some parameters and by reducing the computational time required to tackle the analysis of the numerous variants that have to be considered."

François Rigo

"How does the wind and structures interact with each other ? Among several possibilities, I am studying vibration of structures induced by vortices detaching behind bluff bodies. Thanks to experimental measurements in a Wind Tunnel, I improve a dynamic model able to predict the response of two cylinders arranged in tandem configuration."

Anass Mayou

"Anass Mayou is working on the flutter analysis of bridges under turbulent wind effects. The aim of his thesis is to derive linear equations in the time domain using the theory of derivatives of non-integer order for Multi-Degree-Of-Freedom systems, considering structural and aeroelastic non-linearities. Anass is also interested in the vibration control of structures using Tuned Mass Dampers. In the presence of uncertainties in the loading and in the mechanical properties of this kind of dampers, the aim is to assess with the help of asymptotic approximations the influence of small mistunings of the dampers on the structural response under wide-band excitation."

Julien Heremans

"The knowledge of time signals of load acting on a structure is of primary interest when performing a time domain analysis in dynamic of structures (despite it is true that this kind of analysis is not very popular in our team). If such signals can be recorded on site, an alternative solution consists in generating them. As research engineeer, Julien Heremans is working on the development of a signal generator, able to generate 3D synthetic signals of wind turbulence and wave loads, in the frame of FINELG2020 project. He is also interested in frequency domain analysis for bridges submitted to flutter and buffeting loads, where he tries to extend the Davenport's Background/Resonant decomposition to aerelastic systems."

Michele Esposito

"Dynamic analysis of structures, to which Wind Buffeting Analysis belongs, can be carried either in time or frequency domain. Indeed, if time series of the loading are not available, time domain analysis is not possible. On the other hand, frequency domain analysis relies on statistical features of the loading, from which statistical characterisation of the structural response is obtained. This method has been widely studied and applied under the assumpion of loading being a Gaussian Random Process. Indeed, many of these assumptions are no more valid in a Non-Gaussian context, for which higher statistical moments are needed.As research engineer, Michele Esposito is working on the numerical application of frequency domain dynamic analysis in a Non-Gaussian context to real structures, in the frame of FINELG2020 project."

Kevin Theunissen

"Degradation of bridge decks is a phenomenon that occurs over a considerable amount of time and the structural variations may be difficult to assess. Thanks to an algorithm based on the first-passage time theory, a new method is developed in order to quantify the damage. This process can be extended to numerous other phenomena such as sea level changes. The goal of this PhD thesis is to offer a new monitoring tool that can detect early-degradation stages."

Youssef El Asri

"The thesis main objective is to develop a full guidance aiming to evaluate the effects of building floor vibrations caused by human excitation (walking, running or rhythmic activities) on the comfort of people existing in that building, taking into account probabilistic aspect along with group effect in vibration analysis. Vibration serviceability assessment covers multiple usages of floors such as residential, offices, commercial centers and gymnasiums."