Emeritus Professor Robert Randall

Professor Randall is an Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales, UNSW. Bob has recently taken up the position of Emeritus Professor after 20 years as part of the academic staff at UNSW. His career began as a cadet engineer for Dunlop Rubber Australia, while completing his BTech, at UAdelaide 1961, and then a BA, UMelb 1971. Bob held various engineering positions during this period before joining Bruel and Kjaer, firstly in Denmark and then here in Australia, spending 17 years with the leading sound and vibration instrumentation and consulting company. He is currently an editor for the “Journal of Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing”, and also has served on the advisory committee for numerous applied mechanics conferences. More+

Associate Professor Nicole Kessissoglou

Associate Professor Kessissoglou is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, UNSW. Nicole has been a senior lecturer at UNSW since 2003, after moving from an academic position at James Cook University, Australia. Her career began with the completion of a degree in engineering at the University of Western Australia, UWA, in 1993, and was also awarded a PhD from UWA, in 1999. Nicole holds various professional memberships with leading industry bodies, being a past director and secretary of “The International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration”. Nicole also chaired the 14th instalment of the series of conferences of “International Congress on Sound and Vibration” held in Cairns, Australia. More+

Associate Professor Zhongxiao Peng

Associate Professor Zhongxiao Peng in the School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, the University of New South Wales, has more than 15 years research experience in the fields of wear and machine condition monitoring using wear debris and vibration analysis techniques. She has been awarded a number of large research grants by both Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Zhongxiao is collaborating with National University of Singapore, Leeds University (UK), University of Huddersfied (UK) and Wuhan University of Technology (China), etc. More+

Mr Russell Overhall

Russell Overhall is the Laboratory Manager of the School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales. Russell joined the school in 1984 coming from a civilian ADF (Navy) background. Russell graduated with a BE (Hons) from UNSW in 1984. Russell has overseen the establishment and development of the Acoustics & Vibrations Laboratory. His interest is the delivery of Industry related teaching in the areas of vibration and acoustics and the ongoing development of the instrument base of the laboratory.

Dr Herwig Peters

Herwig is a research associate at the University of New South Wales. He obtained a German Diplom degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Technology Dresden in Germany in January 2010. During his time at university he also spent almost three years studying and working in the UK, Australia and China. Herwig joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group at UNSW in March 2010 as a PhD student. The PhD thesis focused on acoustic-structure interaction of an elastic shell submerged in a heavy fluid and the application of fully coupled FE/BE models. Herwig now works on submerged shells with internal acoustic sound sources and the interaction of elastic structures with their wake vortices. More+

Students

Samaneh Fard: PhD Candidate (expected completion date, 2015)

Samaneh graduated in Environmental Engineering at Tehran University, Iran. After graduating from her Master's degree, she worked at Tehran University as an environmental acoustic researcher for three years. The projects included transportation noise, acoustic performance of road side and median noise barriers. She joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group in September 2012. Her PhD thesis is on environmental noise barriers. More+

Ji Yang: PhD Candidate (expected completion date, 2015)

Ji Yang joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group in August 2012 as a PhD student at The University of New South Wales, supervised by A/Prof. Nicole Kessissoglou. Ji obtained both his Bachelor and Master degree in mechanical engineering from Zhejiang University, China. His PhD project focuses on dynamic analysis of structures with uncertainties. More+

Hongjian Wu : PhD Candidate (expected completion date, 2014)

Hongjian Wu joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group in July 2011 as a PhD student at The University of New South Wales, UNSW, supervised by A/Prof. Nicole Kessissoglou. He obtained his Master and Bachelor degree, majored in mechanical engineering, from Jiangsu University, China. Since graduation he has worked as a NVH engineer in Tier 1 automotive suppliers overseas. He has considerable experience with noise attenuation in the exhause system, braking and steering system. His current research interests lie in the structural vibration and acoustic simulation methodologies. The research topic for his PhD thesis is "Mid to high frequency analysis of onboard machinery noise using a hybrid FE-SEA method". The aim of this project is to develop a hybrid finite element (FE) / statistical energy analysis (SEA) model of a submarine hull to investigate the mid to high frequency acoustic signature due to excitation from onboard machinery. More+

Jian Chen : PhD Candidate (expected completion date, 2013)

Jian Chen joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group in September 2009 as a PhD student at The University of New South Wales, UNSW, supervised by Professor R. B Randall. Prior to studying in Australia, he worked as a research assistant in Queens University Belfast, UK, mainly focus on the research of sound transmission loss of double-leaf panels. Much earlier he served as an engineer in Toyota and as an assistant lecturer in Sichuan University of Science & Engineering in China. He obtained his Master and Bachelor degree in Sichuan University, China, both in mechanical engineering. Jian's current research involves the fault detection of internal combustion engines, including combustion and mechanical faults, for instance engine knock and piston slap. The aim of this project is to develop new models of simulating faults in engines, and methods of interpreting such simulations using ANN or similar fault classification techniques, and to use them in both the diagnosis and prognosis of developing faults. More+

Alumni

Dr Mauro Caresta

Mauro Caresta completed his PhD in 2009 and worked as Postdoctroral Research Fellow at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. He previously completed a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in Italy. His research interests lie in the area of structural dynamics and acoustics. Of particular interest is the vibration of shells with and without interaction with an acoustic medium, control strategies to reduce the sound radiated by submerged vessels, non destructive testing of plate-type nuclear fuel assemblies and shock dynamics in oilwell drilling tools. He recently moved to the Univeristy of Cambridge (UK). More+

Dr Gareth Forbes

Gareth Forbes completed his PhD studies in January 2010. He joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group in late 2006, after completion of his Bachelor of Engineering degree, achieving first class honours, at UNSW in 2005 and subsequently working as a design engineer at the consultancy firm KBR. His research interests lay in the area of structural dynamics and signal processing. Of particular interest was the dynamics of structures under simultaneous spatially and temporally varying loads, and signal processing in mechanical systems. The title of his PhD thesis is “Non-contact gas turbine blade vibration monitoring using internal pressure and casing response measurements”. The aim of this research was to measure the vibration characteristics of blades inside a Gas Turbine from external vibration measurements on the casing.

Dr Peter Jones

Peter joined the Vibration and Acoustics research group in late 2007, after completion of his B.E(Hons I) at The University of Technology, Sydney in 1992 and subsequently working in a range of engineering roles within the power generation industry in Australia and overseas. He has considerable experience applying CFD techniques to the design and performance improvement of gas and water systems in power utility boilers and experience in the contract management of power industry projects. Peter also completed his M.E degree at The University of Technology, Sydney in 2001. His current research interests lie in the area of flow path acoustics. The current working title of his thesis is “Prediction and Optimisation of the Acoustic Performance of Mufflers for Sleep Apnoea Devices”. The aim of this research is to characterise the acoustic behaviour of complex flow path elements and develop a methodology whereby individual elements can be combined and their overall acoustic performance optimised. More+

Dr Sascha Merz

Sascha Merz obtained his first class honours degree in mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Germany, in 2006. He joined the Vibration and Acoustics Research Group at UNSW in January 2007. In his PhD project, Sascha Merz investigated the harmonic excitation of a submarine hull in the low frequency range due to interaction of the propeller with the wake of the submarine. The excitation of the hull occurs acoustically through the fluid as well as mechanically through the propeller/propulstion system. The radiated sound power was reduced using a passive vibration absorber in the propulsion system. Numerical methods such as finite elements and boundary elements were used for the models. Sascha completed his PhD studies in December 2009.

Dr Nader Sawalhi

Dr Sawalhi is a research associate at the school of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. Nader has been a research associate at UNSW since 2007. He received his BSc degree in mechanical engineering from the university of Jordan, Amman in 1997. He received the MEngSc degree and the PhD in 2001 and 2007 respectively, all in mechanical engineering from the University of New south Wales, Australia. From 1997 to 2003, he worked for Jordan cement factories, as a reliability and predictive maintenance engineer. From 2003 to 2007 he worked on his PhD project at UNSW developing signal processing algorithms and simulation models for rolling element bearings. He spent three months on sponsored internship with FAG, Schwienfurt, Germany, 2004. His research interests include signal processing, machine condition monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics. Nader is a member of the Jordanian Engineering Association. More+