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The Maha Fluid Power Research Center is a member of the Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power
The Maha Research Center is a member of the Global Fluid Power Society (GFPS), a world-wide commmunity of institutes, involved in promoting fluid power networking and awareness.
Fluid Power University
Profiles: Purdue University
Congratulations to Yash Shah and Srinath Tankasala on Successful Master's Defenses!
We would like to congratulate Yash Shah and Srinath Tankasala on their successful Master's defenses on July 13, 2017! They have both been integral members of Prof. Vacca's pump group for the past two years.
Yash joined Prof. Andrea Vacca's pump modeling research group in August 2015 and has contributed towards developing novel cavitation modeling approaches for Fluid power systems. His research focused on the development of dynamic cavitation model that accounts for compressibility effects of multiphase flow and non-equilibrium effects of phase change in terms of physically realizable parameters. Yash is heading to Penn State University for a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.
Srinath began working in Prof Vacca's pump group in August 2015 as well and built on the work done by the group on variable displacement gear pumps. His research focused on optimizing the design of a low pressure variable delivery gear pump. He demonstrated the design concept with a fabricated prototype that was tested at Maha. Srinath leaves Maha to join The MathWorks in Boston.
We wish both of them great success in the next stages of their careers!
July 18, 2017
Maha Team Member Ashley Busquets Featured in the Purdue Graduate Ag Research Spotlight!
Congratulations to Maha graduate researcher Ashley Busquets on being featured in the Purdue Graduate Ag Research Spotlight. Read the article here.
June 29, 2017
Congratulations to Addison Alexander for Receiving the Best Paper Award from the 15th Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power!
We are glad to announce that Addison Alexander was selected to receive the 15th Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power Best Paper Award. Addison’s presentation titled “Real-Time Parameter Setpoint Optimization for Electro-Hydraulic Traction Control Systems” was presented during the conference in Linköping, Sweden June 7-9, 2017.
June 29, 2017
Prof. Monika Ivantysynova Receives Honorary Doctorate from Lapeenranta University!
Congratulations to Prof. Monika Ivantysynova on being awarded an honorary doctorate from Lapeenranta University of Technology in Finland. This is in recognition of her many valuable contributions to the development of mechanical engineering research at LUT, as chair of various organizations that evaluate engineering research at the university. The award was presented at the sixth ceremonial conferment of doctoral degrees in Lappeenranta, which was held on 15th -16th June, 2017.
June 21, 2017
Welcome New Maha Team Member!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to Vineet Mohanty, who is the newest member of Maha Research Group.
Vineet is a Master's student here at Purdue and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's pump research group, towards completion of his Master's degree.
May 31, 2017 ‐ Click for People.
Lecture on Gear Pump design by Mr. Morselli at Maha
Mr. Mario Antonio Morselli, the inventor of the most recent disruptive technologies for external gear pumps, gave to Maha’s students a lecture on the key features of external gear pump design. Among other inventions, Mr. Morselli formulated the “continuum” and the “shhark” concepts, which nowadays are among the best design approaches for silent external gear pumps
Below are a couple of images taken during the lecture at the large conference room of Maha.
May 30, 2017
Welcome New Maha Team Members!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the following new members of the Maha team.
Visiting Researchers
Dr. Olivier Reinertz is a visiting post doctoral researcher from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's research group for six weeks.
Kazunari Suzuki is a visiting researcher from KYB Corporation, Japan, and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's pump research group for one year.
Vincenzo Vitiello is a visiting researcher from Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy and will be working with Prof. Vacca's systems group for six months.
May 16, 2017 ‐ Click for People.
Divya Thiagarajan Awarded the Bilsland Dissertation Research Fellowship
Congratulations to Divya Thiagarajan, a Ph.D candidate at Maha, who has been named as recipient of the 2017 Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship award. The Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship is awarded by the Purdue University Graduate School to outstanding Ph.D. candidates in the final year of their doctorate studies. Divya was nominated by members of faculty in the school of Mechanical Engineering for demonstrating superior academic abilities and scholarly achievements and with promise of degree attainment at the conclusion of the fellowship tenure.
Her research is focused on analyzing and designing lubricating interfaces in external gear machines. Divya is advised by Professor Andrea Vacca.
May 11, 2017
Purdue team wins the 2017 NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge!
Congratulations to the team of students that won the 2017 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge organized by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA). The annual competition is open to US engineering schools with a fluid power program, and this year, the students representing Purdue University emerged as winners, competing against strong teams from UIUC, Ohio State, Western Michigan State, among many others.
The Purdue bicycle is fast (>30 km/h) and is capable of recovering energy while braking by utilizing a carbon-fiber accumulator. One of the bicycle’s innovative features is the use of its lightweight aluminum frame as a reservoir. The bike uses Electro-Hydraulic technology and is fully controlled by a smart-phone app. The app can also monitor the heart rate of the rider and displays the hydraulic system parameters in real time, including instantaneous efficiency!
The team won the overall competition, excelling in all sub-categories:
1st in Reliability Race
1st in Best Design
1st in Efficiency Challenge
2nd in Endurance Race
2nd in Best Paper & Presentation
3rd in Manufacture
3rd in Sprint Race
In the picture below, the Purdue team is shown after returning from the competition in Ames, Iowa at Danfoss. (April 19-22, 2017): Gianluca Marinaro (team leader) , Zhuangying Xu, Chenxi Li, Zhengpu Chen, Yizhou Mao with the team advisor Dr. Andrea Vacca.
Congratulations once again!!
April 25, 2017
Congratulations to Dr. Taeho Kim on a Successful Ph.D Defense!
We would like to specially congratulate Dr. Taeho Kim on his successful Ph.D. defense on April 12, 2017. He began his studies in Prof. Ivantysynova’s pump group in August of 2012 and has contributed greatly to the success of the group during his time here.
Taeho’s research focused on developing the swash plate active vibration control for axial piston machines and investigating the effect of swash plate vibration reduction on pump noise emissions. He has developed high-bandwidth pump control systems and demonstrated the feasibility of swash plate active vibration control and active noise control.
We will miss Taeho's contributions as a member of the Maha team and wish him all the best in his future career.
April 17, 2017
Welcome New Maha Team Members!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the following new members of the Maha team.
Visiting Researchers
Dr. Jörg Edler is a visiting post doctoral researcher from the Graz University of Technology, Styria, Austria and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's hydraulic research group for three months.
April 17, 2017 ‐ Click for People.
Congratulations to Nate Keller on a Successful Master's Defense!
We would like to congratulate Nate Keller on his successful Master’s defense on April 10, 2017. He began his studies in Prof. Ivantysynova’s systems group in May of 2015 and has done excellent work in developing models to appropriately design and size hydraulic system architectures.
Nate’s research focused on demonstrating the importance of using dynamic mathematical models with representative duty cycles to appropriately design and size efficient, yet simple, hydraulic system architectures for mobile machinery. He demonstrated this novel system sizing method using hydraulic systems on a combine harvester as examples. He also developed a novel split low-pressure system for closed circuit systems..
We are excited that Nate will further his education by staying here at Maha to pursue his PhD.
April 17, 2017
Congratulations to Jeremy Beale on a Successful Master's Defense!
We would like to congratulate Jeremy Beale on his successful Master’s defense on Feb 6, 2017. He began his studies in Prof. Ivantysynova’s pump group in July of 2014 and has significantly contributed to the optimization of pump interfaces in axial piston machines using computational models.
Jeremy’s research focused first on improving the physical accuracy of existing models. His research then continued with slipper surface optimization for energy efficiency and wear reduction. .
We will miss Jeremy's contributions to the team and wish him all the best in the next stage of his career as a hydraulic applications engineer at Tec-Hackett in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
April 17, 2017
Welcome New Maha Team Members!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the following new members of the Maha team.
Visiting Researchers
Wuyu Chen ‐ Wuyu is a visiting researcher from Politecnico di Torino and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's hydraulic systems research group for eight months.
Maurizio Zullo ‐ Maurizio is visiting from Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II for eight months and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's hydraulic systems research group.
Riccardo Madau ‐ Riccardo is a visiting researcher from Politecnico di Torino and will be working with Prof. Andrea Vacca's hydraulic systems research group for the next eight months.
Yuri Ghini ‐ Yuri is a visiting researcher from Politecnico di Torino and will be working with Prof. Andrea Vacca's hydraulic systems research group for eight months.
Annalisa Sciancalepore ‐ Annalisa is a visiting researcher from Politecnico di Torino and will be working with Prof. Andrea Vacca's hydraulic systems research group for eight months.
April 10, 2017 ‐ Click for People.
Prof. Monika Ivantysynova will receive an honorary doctorate from Lappeenranta University of Technology
LUT announced their list of the 2017 honorary doctorates today, and we are pleased to announce that Prof. Monika Ivantysynova has been selected to receive an honorary doctorate degree by the University. This is in recognition of her many valuable contributions to the development of mechanical engineering research at LUT, as chair of various organizations that evaluate engineering research at the university.
The award will be presented at the sixth ceremonial conferment of doctoral degrees in Lappeenranta, which will be held on 15th -16th June, 2017.
The press release can be found here.
February 13, 2017
Welcome New Maha Team Members!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the following new members of the Maha team.
Graduate Students
Ashkan Darbani ‐ Ashkan is a Master's student joining Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's pump research group.
Abhimanyu Baruah ‐ Abhimanyu is a Master's student joining Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's pump research group.
Visiting Researchers
Yair Benitez ‐ Yair is visiting for the next four months and will be working with Prof. Andrea Vacca's hydraulic systems research group.
January 12, 2017 ‐ Click for People.
Congratulations to Riccardo Bianchi for Receiving the 2016 SAE Excellence in Oral Presentation Award from ComVEC!
We are glad to announce that Riccardo Bianchi was selected to receive the 2016 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Excellence in Oral Presentation Award from the Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress (ComVEC). Riccardo’s presentation titled “Active Vibration Damping for Construction Machines Based on Frequency Identification” was selected by those in attendance of the ComVEC that was held on Oct. 4-6, 2016 in Rosemont, Illinois, USA.
November 21, 2016
Maha Team at the FPNI Ph.D. Symposium on Fluid Power
A group of researchers from Maha lab attended the 9th FPNI Ph.D. Symposium on Fluid Power which took place from October 26-28, 2016 in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil. The attendees included Prof. Monika Ivantysynova, Prof. Andrea Vacca and Ph.D. students Ryan Jenkins, Rene Chacon, Lizhi Shang and Riccardo Bianchi. Prof. Monika Ivantysynova was invited to give a keynote speech titled “Challenges and Opportunities for Fluid Power” and the Ph.D. students all presented conference papers.
In addition to the Backe medal, which is awarded for the best conference paper, five recognized papers were selected by the International jury composed of seven renowned fluid power professors. Ryan Jenkins' paper, “Investigation of Instability of a Pressure Compensated Vane Pump” was selected as one of the five recognized papers. Congratulations to Ryan!
November 2, 2016
Dr. Davide Cristofori and Prof. Andrea Vacca awarded the 2015 Donald Julius Groen Prize!
Congratulations to Dr. Davide Cristofori and Prof. Andrea Vacca. The Mechatronics, Informatics and Control Group Board of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), has selected the paper ‘Modeling hydraulic actuator mechanical dynamics from pressure measured at control valve ports’, by Davide Cristofori and Andrea Vacca as the winner of the 2015 Donald Julius Groen Prize.
The Prize is awarded every year by IMechE to the authors of a selected outstanding paper.
September 22, 2016
Congratulations to Gautham Ramchandran on a Successful Master's Defense!
We would like to congratulate Gautham Ramchandran on a successful Master's defense on July 18, 2016! He began his studies in January of 2015 in Prof. Andrea Vacca's pump modeling research group and has done a lot of great work broadening the lab's expertise in modeling high pressure radial piston pumps.
Gautham will be joining Gamma Technologies in Westmont, IL, as a Project Engineer for Hydraulics and Lubrication applications. We will miss him and wish him the best in the next stage of his career.
July 25, 2016
Congratulations to Dr. Damiano Padovani on a Successful PhD Defense!
We would like to congratulate Dr. Damiano Padovani on a successful PhD defense on July 12, 2016! He began his studies in Prof. Ivantysynova's systems group in August of 2012 and has done excellent work applying the principles of displacement controlled actuation.
Damiano's research focused on the application of displacement controlled actuation to the design of a next generation tamping machine for railway maintenance. He also developed a novel displacement controlled solution for the vibration of the squeeze cylinders in the same application.
We will definitely miss Damianos's contributions to the team and wish him the best in his post-doctoral position at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
July 15, 2016
Welcome 2016 SURF Students!
We would like to welcome this year's group of SURF Undergraduate Researchers:
SURF 2016 Undergraduate Researchers
Zechao Lu ‐ Zechao will be spending the summer working with Prof. Andrea Vacca's pump research group.
Dan Ding ‐ Dan will be spending the summer working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's pump research group.
Rajith Weerasingh ‐ Rajith will also be spending the summer working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's pump research group.
June 1, 2016
Welcome New Maha Team Members!
We would like to extend a very warm welcome to the following new students who have joined the Maha team in the past month:
Graduate Students
Pranay Banerjee ‐ Pranay is a Master's student joining Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's hydraulic systems research group.
Undergraduate Students
Veersinh Patil ‐ Veersinh is an Undergraduate Research Assistant joining Prof. Andrea Vacca's pump research group.
Visiting Researchers
Mateus Bertolin ‐ Mateus is visiting for a short time and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's systems research group.
Raphael Seifried ‐ Raphael is visiting for the next six months and will be working with Prof. Monika Ivantysynova's systems research group.
June 1, 2016
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