Fred Nitzsche

Biography

• PhD (1983) and MSc (1980) from Stanford University (USA) in the area of Aeroelasticity (Holt Ashley, supervisor). Aeronautical Engineer (1976) from the Brazilian Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA)
• Manager Assistant and Chief, Aeroelasticity Group (1986-1990) at EMBRAER (Brazil) responsible for the certification of turbo-propeller aircraft
• Scientist at DLR (German Aerospace Center): Institute of Aeroelasticity (Göttingen, 1991-1994) and Institute for Adaptive Structures (Braunschweig, 1994-1995). Pioneer researcher in the area of “smart” structures technologies applied to rotorcraft vibration control problems
• Senior Research Officer at the Institute for Aerospace Research of the National Research Council Canada, NRC (1995-1999) with studies on “smart” structures applications to aircraft and rotorcraft noise and vibration. Canadian scientist during a USA/Canada/Australia consortium for the first demonstration of the use of “smart” structures to control fin buffeting in a full-scale fighter. Co-recipient of the USA’s Non-Atomic Military Research and Development award “Buffet Loads Alleviation – BLA” (2000) and NRC’s Innovation Award (1999)
• Associate Professor (1999-2002) and Professor (2002-present) at Carleton University’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Co-founder of the Rotorcraft Research Group (2003) and leader (2003-2007) of the “Smart Hybrid Active Rotor Control System – SHARCS” international project for demonstrations of the stiffness control principle in rotorcraft rotor vibration alleviation involving industrial, academic and research partners
• Co-founder of the spin-off company Smart Rotor Systems incorporated in 2009
• Visiting Professor at University of Rome “La Sapienza” (2010), German Aerospace Center (2012-2014), University of São Paulo, Brazil (2013-2014), Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, CNAM, Paris, France (2013) and Politecnico di Milano, POLIMI, Milan, Italy (2015)
• Guest Professor at TU Delft’s Aerospace Engineering Department (Netherlands) since 2015
• Supervisor and co-supervisor of approximately 40 Master’s and 10 PhD’s graduate students at Carleton University, University of Rome, University of Rome III, TU Braunschweig, University of São Paulo and Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica
• Author of 150+ referred publications in the areas of Aeroelasticity of fixed and rotary wings, Structural Dynamics and Control, Aeroacoustics and “Smart” Structures and Materials technologies. Holds 2 patents, including the “Smart Spring” stiffness-control device for the reduction of vibrations
• General Chair of the 18^th International Conference on Adaptive Structures Technologies (ICAST 2007) in Ottawa, Canada
• Elected member of ICAST International Organizing Committee
• Associate Fellow of AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
• Elected member of AIAA Structural Dynamics Technical Committee (SDTC)

Partners

• NTUA
• POLIMI
• TU Munich
• DTU
• TU Delft
• VESTAS
• DLR (German Aerospace Center) Institute for Lightweight Structures and Adaptronics
• University of Rome “LaSapienza”
• University of Rome III “Roma Tre”
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich – ETHZ
• Conservatoire Ntaional des Arts et Métiers (Paris)
• University of São Paulo – USP (Brazil)
• Marenco Swiss Helicopters

Publications

Nitzsche, F., D’Assunção, D., De Marqui Jr., C. “Aeroelastic control of non-rotating and rotating wings using the dynamic stiffness modulation principle via piezoelectric actuators” Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, 26, No. 13, pp.1656-1668, 2015

McTavish, S., Feszty, D., Nitzsche, F., “An Experimental and Computational Assessment of Blockage Effects on Wind Turbine Wake Development,” Wind Energy, Vol. 17, pp. 1515-1529, 2014

Nitzsche, F., Feszty, D., Grappasonni, C., Coppotelli, G. “Whirl-tower Open Loop Experiments and Simulations with an Adaptive Pitch Link Device for Helicopter Rotor Vibration,” 54^th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, Paper No. AIAA-2013-1711, Boston, MA, April 8-11, 2013

Gransden, D. I., Bornemann, B., Rose, M., Nitzsche, F. “A Constrained Generalised-α Method for Coupling Rigid Parallel Chain Kinematics and Elastic Bodies,” Computational Mechanics 12/2014; 55(3). (DOI: 10.1007/s00466-015-1120-y)

Balajewicz, M., Nitzsche, F., Feszty, D., “Application of Multi-Input Volterra Theory to Nonlinear Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Aerodynamic Systems,” AIAA Journal, 48, No. 1, pp. 56-62, 2010