Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab)

Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab)

Marine Computational Mechanics Research Lab (MCMR Lab)The Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab) was founded by Amir Nejad and Eilif Pedersen at Department of Marine Technology in 2018.

MD Lab consists of an educational lab with equipment supporting master courses at Marine Technology Department, and a research lab used by master and PhD candidates.

Our research activities include dynamic analysis, modelling, load/ load effect analysis, design and health monitoring of marine systems and equipment.  We conduct research in the field of offshore wind, offshore oil & gas, ships & vessels, subsea, and aquaculture & fish industry.

MD Lab (Research Lab):

The research activities are carried out by postdoctoral and PhD candidates at MD Lab.

Most MD Lab research projects are externally funded.

We collaborate with several universities and research centres in Europe and US, including RWTH Aachen UniversityTechnische Universität HamburgStellenbosch UniversityVrije Universiteit Brussel, DTU Wind EnergyUniversity of Strathclyde, TU Delft, Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems, and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Queries on industrial or EU projects should be directed to professor Amir Nejad.

MD Lab (Educational Lab):

student and teachers

MD educational lab includes dynamics and vibration test rigs. Tutorials, guidelines and videos for testing are provided to the students during the lab exercise hours. 

Open Access Datasets:

​​​​​​​The open access data generated in the projects by the MD Lab are uploaded in this community:

https://zenodo.org/communities/mdlab/

Map of Offshore Wind Farms in Norway:

As a part of his master thesis "Effectiveness of Offshore Maintenance Bases in Norwegian Offshore Wind" Fredrik Stennes Jacobsen has developed an interactive map of "Oil and Gas Installations and Offshore Wind Farms in Norway's Maritime Territories".

Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab)

Vacancy

Please follow NTNU vacancies page, all our positions will be posted there.  

Teaching

 

Publications & Disseminations

See all the publications in the database.

 

News & Events

2022:

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Prof. Nejad interview with WindEurope can be found here.

2021:

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- "A Need for Interdisciplinary Education in Ocean Fields" by Prof. Amir Nejad and Dr. Michaela Ibrion was published as a part of "UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development" in connection with a special issue magazine in partnership with UNESCO.

Illustration by Amir Nejad

- MD Lab article on "Viking Sky" and Healthprop project have attracted media - see this recent article by Motorship magazine highlighting opportunities that Digital Twin can bring in operational safety.

- MD Lab has contributed to the "UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development" with an article to a special issue magazine in partnership with UNESCO.

- Prof. Nejad was invited as a guest quiz master by the Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals (TEKNA) to discuss general engineering topics. The recorded session is available here (in Norwegian).

- Congratulations to Dr. Shuaishuai Wang for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled "Design and dynamic analysis of a 10-MW medium-speed drivetrain in offshore wind turbines" on 14 April 2021. Professors Torgeir Moan and Amir Nejad have been Shuaishuai's supervisors. Thanks to PhD evaluation committee: Professor Jan Helsen (Brussels Free University), Professor Yihan Xing (UiS) and Professor Zhen Gao (NTNU).

screen shot from zoom meeting

- Congratulations to Dr. Farid K. Moghadam for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled "Vibration-Based Condition Monitoring of Drivetrains in Large Offshore Wind Turbines in a Digital Twin Perspective" on 29 March 2021. Professors Amir Nejad, Eilif Pedersen and Kourosh Koushan have been Farid's supervisors. Thanks to PhD evaluation committee: Professor Simon Watson (TU Delft), Professor Jan Helsen (Brussels Free University), and Professor Erin Bachynski (NTNU).

- March 2021: HealthProp project will have a special session at OMAE 2021! Follow HealthProp results in OMAE 2021, symp. 7-9.

- Feb. 2021: MD Lab is a part of the newly awarded Research Center, FME Northwind, with about 50 industrial and research partners from around the world.

 

2020:

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Congratulations to Dr. Jone Torsvik for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled "Dynamic Analysis in Design and Operation of Large Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Drivetrains" on 15 Dec. 2020. Professor Eilif Pedersen, Professor Amir Nejad, and Dr. Bjørn Skaare (Equinor) have been his supervisors. Thanks to PhD evaluation committee: Professor Jan Helsen (Brussels Free University), Professor Wolfgang Borutzky (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) and Professor Erin Bachynski (NTNU).

screenshot of people

(Photo by Bjørn Tore Bach)

 

2019:

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- The third Ocean Engineering Summer School, supported by “The Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium”, was held at the Marine Technology Department (IMT) from 12 August to 06 September. Students from different universities across Japan attended the Summer School at IMT. The school is a part of an initiative by the Nippon Foundation to strengthen the competence in ocean engineering in Japan. The students were offered a varied program, with lectures, exercises, lab and industry visits, and field trips. The Summer School was organized by Amir Nejad with supports from many of the staff at IMT. 

group photo

group photo

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- Dr. Zhengshun Cheng, Associate Professor from State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering Shanghai Jiao Tong University visited MD Lab on 5th Sep. and discussed the collaboration between SJTU and MD Lab.

group photo

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- 30 July 2019: As a part of collaboration between Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab), and Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG) at Stellenbosch University, Tor Magnus Aarskog has joined the research team on board of research vessel S. A. Agulhas II on the voyage from South Africa to the Antarctica for three weeks. Tor Magnus tasks include data collection and vibration measurements on different locations of the ship for further load effect analysis and health monitoring purposes during Antarctica voyage. The project is supervised by Amir Nejad (NTNU) and Annie Bekker (Stellenbosch University).

boat and icey ocean

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- 16 May 2019: Prof. Annie Bekker, director of the Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG) from the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch, gave a lecture on the full scale vibration measurements and operational modal analysis of a research vessel.

teacher in the classroom

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- May 2019: During the last summer in 2018, a group of students from Marine Technology Department developed a digital twin of NTNU’s research vessel Gunnerus with collaboration with DNV-GL (see the demo here). Lars R. O. Bjørum, who was one of the group members, continued the work further in the master thesis in 2019 and worked to develop a method for Remaining Useful Life (RUL) calculation of thrusters which will be integrated in the digital twin platform.  

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- In March 2019, Lorenzo Balestra, visiting student from University of Bologna, defended successfully his thesis with the title: “On Design and Analysis of a Drivetrain Test Rig for Wind Turbine Health Monitoring”. His thesis was awarded the highest grade at University of Bologna. He carried out his thesis at MD lab with Prof. Nejad as main supervisor and Prof. Naldi (University of Bologna) as co-supervisor. Well done Lorenzo!

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- 14 March 2019: MD Lab received delegation from Shanghai Marine Equipment Research Institute (SMERI). Prof. Nejad presented the activities at MD Lab to Dr. Li, Associate Director, and a group of six delegates from SMERI and discussed common interests.

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- On Friday 1st March 2019, the marine dynamic lab, as a part of the MD Lab was officially inaugurated. This lab is the educational part of the MD Lab with equipment and test rigs demonstrating dynamic and vibration principles. Through lab exercises students will have better understanding of dynamic modelling and analysis in marine applications which will be used in different courses in the marine engineering master study program.

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Illustration

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2018:

- On 15-16th Oct. 2018: Visit and lecture at the Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG), Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch (Photos by Prof. Annie Bekker, SVRG).

aircraft

classroom with students

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- On 3rd Oct. 2018: Prof. Wim Desmet, head of the vibration and noise group at KU LEUVEN, and Dr. Shawn Sheng, wind turbine drivetrain researcher at National Renewable Lab, visited MD Lab and discussed ongoing activities and research with Prof. Nejad. 

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- The second Ocean Engineering Summer School, supported by “The Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium”, was held at Marine Technology Department (IMT) from 13 August to 07 September this summer. Students from nine different universities across Japan attended the Summer School at IMT. The school is a part of an initiative by Nippon Foundation to strengthen the competence in ocean engineering in Japan. The students are offered a varied program, with lectures, exercises, laboratory, and field trips. This year's Summer School was organized by Amir Nejad with supports from many of the staff at IMT as well as colleagues at NTNU Ålesund. Some students from the summer school carried out their projects at MD Lab on fault detection and vibration analysis. 

group photo

group photo

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- MD Lab received a marine gear train from Servogear, which is greatly appreciated and thanked for.  

28 Aug 2023

Research projects

Research projects

Norway-US partnership on higher education and research in offshore wind (NUWind), 2023-2027

NorthWind Research Centre (Center for Environment-friendly Energy Research), 2021-2029

InteDiagWTCP, 2020-2023: Intelligent diagnosis of wind turbine critical parts

CONWIND, 2020-2023: Research on smart operation control technologies for offshore wind farms

HealthProp, 2020-2023

Digital twin development of marine drivetrains, 2019-2021

Failure investigation of 10 MW turbine, 2019

Condition monitoring and fault detection of wind turbine drivetrains, 2019-2021

Drivetrains for +10 MW offshore wind turbines, 2017-2021

Main bearings for +10 MW offshore wind turbines, 2016-2020

 

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Collaborating researchers

Collaborating researchers

 

Annie Bekker. Photo.

Annie Bekker, Director of The Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG), Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Jan Helsen. Photo.

Jan Helsen, Professor, Acoustics and Vibrations Research Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium

   

Alumni (Post-doc, PhD, MSc.)

Alumni (Post-doc, PhD, MSc.)

Post-Doc, PhD Graduates:

Name     

Graduation Year

Thesis

Dr. Jone Torsvik

2020

Dynamic Analysis in Design and Operation of Large Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Drivetrains

Dr. Farid K. Moghadam

2021

Vibration-Based Condition Monitoring of Drivetrains in Large Offshore Wind Turbines in a Digital Twin Perspective

Dr. Shuaishuai Wang

2021

Design and dynamic analysis of a 10-MW medium-speed drivetrain in offshore wind turbines

Dr. Geraldo Rebouças

2019-2021

Post-doctoral researcher

 

 

 

MSc. Graduates:

Name     

Graduation Year

Research topic

Master student. Photo.

Morten Aleksander Rasmussen 

2018

Vibration-based fault detection and condition monitoring of mechanical systems in offshore wind turbines (supervisor:  Amir Nejad)

Master student. Photo.

Helene Rimstad

2018

Dynamic analysis and modelling of slow rotating propulsion system (supervisors: Amir Nejad, Geir Dahler DNV-GL)

Master student. Photo.

Sigrid Siksjø Johansen

2018

Fault detection of drivetrains in offshore wind turbines by digital twin model approach (supervisor:  Amir Nejad)

Master student. Photo.

Elisa Elmies

2018

Digital twin of offshore wind turbine drivetrains (supervisor:  Amir Nejad)

Master student. Photo.

Yuan Tian

2019

Development a digital twin for a ship drivetrain system (supervisor:  Amir Nejad)

Master student. Photo.

Lars Oftedal Bjørum

2019

Developing a digital twin for power transmission system of R/V Gunnerus (supervisor: Amir Nejad)

Master student. Photo.

Wichert Kooloos

2019

Limiting mechanisms for the torque density of wind turbine drivetrains (European Wind Energy Master (EWEM), supervisors: Amir Nejad, Henk Polinder TU Delft, Ron van Ostayen TU Delft, Niels Diepeveen DOT)

Master student. Photo.

Jelle Muller 

2019

Wind turbine drivetrains condition monitoring through SCADA data on farm level (European Wind Energy Master (EWEM), supervisors: Amir Nejad, Simon Watson TU Delft, Eliz-Mari Lourens TU Delft, Jasper Kreeft Shell)

Master student. Photo.

Chern Fong Lee

2019

On floating wind turbine control system (supervisors: Erin Bachynski, Amir Nejad)

Master student. Photo.

Lorenzo Balestra

2019 Development of test rig for wind turbine drivetrains  (supervisors: Amir Nejad, Giovanni Naldi University of Bologna)

Master student. Photo.

Tor Magnus Aarskog

2020

Full scale measurements and health monitoring of SA Agullas II 

Master student. Photo.

Torbjørn Aabrekk

2020

Condition-based maintenance of journal bearings in high speed machinery

 

Master student. Photo.

Diederik van Binsbergen

2020

Effect of induction and wake steering control on the drivetrain fatigue of an offshore 10MW wind turbine

 

Master student. Photo.

Adrián Yagüe

2020

Condition-based monitoring of floating
wind turbine drivetrains

 

Master student. Photo.

Maarten van der Drift

2020 Analysis of mechanical components in offshore wind turbines for predictive maintenance
Jean Mark Malmei Monnac 2021 Coupled dynamic modelling of a multi-megawatt floating wind turbine by means of multi-body simulation
Andreas Breivik 2021 Fault detection of ship propulsion system

Nils Desch

2022 Design of 15 MW wind turbine drivetrain
Marianne Helno Jahren 2022 On reduced order drivetrain model integrated with wind turbine and wind farm simulation tools
Gustav Einar Piene 2022 Digital Twin Based Condition Monitoring of Machinery on board of an FLNG

Simon Krogstad Munkeby

2022 On application of digital twin in ship operation and performance
Fredrik Stennes Jacobsen 2023

 

Effectiveness of Offshore Maintenance Bases in Norwegian Offshore Wind

 

Artur Habuda

2023 Condition Monitoring and Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Wind Turbines by means of Machine Learning Methods. Supervisors: Prof. Amir Nejad, Prof. María Belén Muñoz Abella (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
Aurora Pizzinat 2023

 

Design of drivetrain system for the 22 MW reference offshore wind turbine. Supervisors: Prof. Amir Nejad, Prof. Giovanni Bracco (Politecnico di Torino)