Currently my supervisor are recruiting PhD students for the two projects below offering at least tuition fee scholarship for international students or full scholarship for EU/UK students. You are very welcome to apply if your have experience or interest in fluid power systems, control engineering, noise and vibration and signal processing. Basically you are required to have a Master's degree in one of the following areas: mechanical engineering, control engineering, electrical engineering or similar related disciplines.
Project title: Digital Hydraulic System Control
Project Description: In most hydraulically powered systems, the speed and/or force of a load are controlled using valves to throttle the flow and thus reduce the hydraulic pressure. This is a simple but extremely inefficient method as the excess energy is lost as heat, and it is common for more than 50% of the input power to be wasted in this way. Digital hydraulics, which means hydraulic systems having discrete valued components actively controlling system output, can potentially have much higher efficiency and less energy loss. This project will investigate novel digital switched hydraulic converters and their feasibility via analytical modelling and experimental validation.
The research outcomes will benefit a wide range of engineering sectors including construction and agricultural machinery, industrial machinery, oil and gas, mining, defence and robotics in the UK and worldwide and will result in a next generation power technology that consumes only a fraction of energy of current machines.
Candidates with experience/interest in fluid power systems, control engineering, dynamic systems, modelling and simulation are very welcome to apply. The University of Bath will provide a wide range of training courses and career support for PhD students.
Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, a Master’s degree in one of the following areas: mechanical engineering, control engineering, electrical engineering or similar related disciplines. English language requirements must be satisfied in advance of an offer of funding, by International English Language Testing System (IELTS) only with an overall band score of 6.5 and a minimum of 6.0 per skill.
Prospective candidates are encouraged to contact Dr Min Pan (m.pan@bath.ac.uk) directly for further details.
Funding: A Home/EU award (3-3.5 years) will provide full tuition fees, an annual Training Support Fee of £1,000, and a tax-free maintenance payment of £14,553 (2017-8 rate).
An Overseas award (3 years): Provides tuition fee, an annual Training Support Fee of £1,000, but no stipend.
Project title: Novel Integrated Control of Fluid-borne Noise in Fluid Power Systems
Project Description: The problem of high noise levels generated by hydraulically powered machines has risen in awareness amongst industry and the general public. Exposure to high noise levels for long periods can result in clinically significant hearing loss, impaired performance of workers and may also lead to worker fatigue and associated carelessness. The health and safety issues relating to noise have been recognised for many years and legislation is now placing clear demands on manufacturers to reduce noise levels. The hydraulic industry is also concerned with rising unwanted sound levels and emphasising the noise control which should be considered as an integral part of machine design process.
Existing passive systems or components for fluid-borne noise attenuation, such as silencers, pulsation dampers and accumulators have been applied widely in fluid power systems and shown to be effective to reduce fluid-borne noise. However, they require tuning to specific systems, their attenuation frequency range is limited and they are bulky for some applications. In addition, passive attenuation devices based on expansion chambers and accumulators are likely to be unsuitable for high dynamic response systems as they add compliance to the system and impair the dynamic response. My recent research on active fluid-borne noise control methods have proven that active devices have the potential to be effective at a much wider range of frequencies and system designs without significantly affecting the system dynamic response. However it is not very effective for high frequency cancellation as it is limited by the bandwidth of the controller.
To address these challenges, a novel integrated control method for fluid-borne noise attenuation is proposed. The control system is built by integrating an active feedforward noise controller with passive tuned flexible hoses. The active attenuator is designed to cancel the dominant harmonic pressure pulsations in the fluid line, while the passive hose is tuned to attenuate the residual high frequency pulsations.
Candidates with experience/interests in fluid power systems, control engineering, noise and vibration and signal processing are very welcome to apply. Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, a Master’s degree in one of the following areas: mechanical engineering, control engineering, electrical engineering or similar related disciplines. English language requirements must be satisfied in advance of an offer of funding, by International English Language Testing System (IELTS) only with an overall band score of 6.5 and a minimum of 6.0 per skill.
Prospective candidates are encouraged to contact Dr Min Pan (m.pan@bath.ac.uk) directly for further details.
Funding: A Home/EU award (3-3.5 years) will provide full tuition fees, an annual Training Support Fee of £1,000, and a tax-free maintenance payment of £14,553 (2017-8 rate).
An Overseas award (3 years): Provides tuition fee, an annual Training Support Fee of £1,000, but no stipend. |