NSF Grant to Fund Study of Vibration Dangers

The National Science Foundation has awarded $290,000 to two UT Dallas professors studying analysis of mechanical systems subject to vibrations.

A major application of the research is the ability to manage risk related to designing bridges, buildings, plants and other structures that are subjected to high winds, earthquakes or ocean waves.

Dr. Alain Bensoussan, distinguished professor and director of the UT Dallas School of Management’s International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis (ICDRiA), is the principal investigator. Dr. Janos Turi, professor in the UT Dallas School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, is the co-principal investigator of the study.

“Our proposal was considered attractive by the NSF as an interesting new approach, and we’re thrilled they decided to award us this grant,” Bensoussan said.

The three-year study will focus on developing a mathematical model to predict the response of structures when they are stressed beyond the elastic (linear) region. The title of the study is “New Stochastic Processes, Partial Differential Equations and Control Problems Arising in Models of Mechanical Structures Subjected to Vibrations.”

“Our mathematical approach provides a rigorous framework to study all the probabilistic aspects related to randomly excited nonlinear structures. The study could have important implications in designing mechanical structures in a better and more accurate way, which is important in many areas of mechanical and civil engineering,” said Bensoussan.

The grant was awarded through the NSF’s Division of Mathematical Sciences. “Because of the mathematical context of this study, it’s very important that we have assistance from the UT Dallas Mathematics Department. We are currently searching for talented mathematics Ph.D. students and a post-doctoral fellow to participate in the research,” said Bensoussan.

Bensoussan founded ICDRiA at the UT Dallas School of Management in 2004. The center conducts research and serves as a forum for the exchange of knowledge on the subject of risk as it relates to large-investment industrial projects that involve new technologies, applications and markets. For more information about ICDRiA, please visit http://som.utdallas.edu/centers/icdria/.

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