IUTAM Symposium on Nonlinear Dynamics of Systems and Structures for Green Energy Conversion

Green, i.e. sustainable and renewable energy generation is one of the biggest challenges for the life on the planet Earth, since traditional fossil resources are bound to run out, and safe and clean nuclear energy is yet to be developed. Thus, a lot of attention is being devoted in this direction in all countries, and this requires strong efforts from the research community. The green source systems/devices can be roughly divided in two main classes, static like solar panels, and dynamic, where there are moving parts playing a key role. In addition to the traditional hydro-electrical power plants, that are already fully exploited, the most promising examples in the latter class are systems/devices suitable to harvest energy from vibrations, wind or sea waves. They share the property of using slender structures, in order to optimize their performances, and thus they naturally involve (mostly) geometrically nonlinear effects, which can be exploited (according to a modern viewpoint) or must be eliminated (based on a more conservative approach). In both cases, the nonlinear dynamic phenomena must be well known. Thus, the goal of the proposed Symposium is to overall representing a first scientific forum for cooperatively facing the issue of how taking proper advantage from the great amount of knowledge available in the nonlinear dynamics community, for the analysis, control and design of sustainable systems and structures for ‘green’ energy applications. To this aim, expertise, research, results, ideas, proposals, prototypes, etc. are to be shared not only, albeit certainly primarily, among scholars of nonlinear dynamics, but also with scientists having the necessary technological expertise in related fields of application. Latest achievements from nonlinear dynamics areas, at any level and in any manner, in structures aimed at producing ‘green’ energy are thus welcome. A non-exhaustive list of cases includes:

• N-MEMS sensors, actuators and harvesters
• vibration reduction and control of slender structures
• systems and methods for energy harvesting
• new designs of wind turbines
• offshore wind turbine, with nonlinearities coming from sea, structure and wind
• structures for sea waves energy extraction
• coupled thermo-, magneto- or electro-mechanical systems
• optimisation and control of ‘green’ structurers
• nonlinear composite structures
• multiscale and multidisciplinary modelling
• experimental techniques
• application of structures for ‘green’ energy generation

The interest ranges from theoretical works, to analytical and numerical ones, to experimental studies where phenomena are tested or prototypes built.

The symposium is aimed at joining two different communities: the nonlinear dynamics one, that can offer its expertise to address new problems with relevant interest for the society, and the green energy one, that often see nonlinearity as a dangerous fact, thus missing deep knowledge and possibility of its fruitful exploitation.