The strategic objectives of this research project are articulated around two complementary thrusts.

Thrust 1: Multi-Nonlinear Analysis of Industrial Bladed Disks. This research aims at developing high-fidelity solution formulations that account for geometric nonlinearities and structural interactions e.g., rubbing and blade-to-blade contact) in the time domain for both tuned and mistuned bladed disks. The resulting digital models will allow for the investigation of relevant industrial issues such as blade walking. These models will also provide an ideal framework for the development of tip-timing algorithms for the detection of nonlinear structural interactions.

Thrust 2: Equality-Based Nonsmooth Dynamics of Industrial-Scale Turbomachines. Building on the Equality-based Weighted Residual (E-WR) formulation developed under GUIde7, this research aims at developing next-generation frequency-domain tools for advanced frictional contact modeling and analysis of large-scale turbomachinery systems, with application to life-cycle wear prediction. Developments will support the investigation of key industrial challenges, including the interaction of wear with mistuning, the coexistence of smooth and nonsmooth nonlinearities, and aeroelastic phenomena in systems with frictional interfaces. 

The formulations and software developed in this project will be applied to representative problems drawn from the technical challenges faced by GUIde industry members. Building on numerical tools developed by the same research team under GUIde7, the overarching objective is the development of an industry-ready integrated software suite that supports the analysis of multi-nonlinear structural interactions in realistic turbomachinery configurations.