The Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab) was founded by Amir Nejad and Eilif Pedersen at Department of Marine Technology in 2018.

MD Lab consists of an educational lab with equipment supporting master courses at Marine Technology Department, and a research lab used by master and PhD candidates.

Our research activities include dynamic analysis, modelling, load/ load effect analysis, design and health monitoring of marine systems and equipment.  We conduct research in the field of offshore wind, offshore oil & gas, ships & vessels, subsea, and aquaculture & fish industry.

MD Lab (Research Lab):

The research activities are carried out by postdoctoral and PhD candidates at MD Lab.

Most MD Lab research projects are externally funded.

We collaborate with several universities and research centres in Europe and US, including RWTH Aachen University, Technische Universität Hamburg, Stellenbosch University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, DTU Wind Energy, University of Strathclyde, TU Delft, Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems, and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). 

Queries on industrial or EU projects should be directed to professor Amir Nejad.

MD Lab (Educational Lab):

MD educational lab includes dynamics and vibration test rigs. Tutorials, guidelines and videos for testing are provided to the students during the lab exercise hours. 

Open Access Datasets:

​​​​​​​The open access data generated in the projects by the MD Lab are uploaded in this community:

https://zenodo.org/communities/mdlab/

Map of Offshore Wind Farms in Norway:

As a part of his master thesis "Effectiveness of Offshore Maintenance Bases in Norwegian Offshore Wind" Fredrik Stennes Jacobsen has developed an interactive map of "Oil and Gas Installations and Offshore Wind Farms in Norway's Maritime Territories".

Vacancy

Please follow NTNU vacancies page, all our positions will be posted there.  

Teaching

• MR8402: Reliability-based design and operation of marine machinery (PhD level, autumn semesters)
• TMR4330: Marine machinery design (spring semesters)
• TMR4222: Machinery and maintenance, mechanical vibration (spring semesters)
• TMR4505: Wind turbine drivetrains (part of Wind Turbine specialization course autumn semesters)
• TMR4535: Marine Mechatronics, specialization course (autumn semesters)

Publications & Disseminations

See all the publications in the database.

News & Events

2022:

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Prof. Nejad interview with WindEurope can be found here.

2021:

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- "A Need for Interdisciplinary Education in Ocean Fields" by Prof. Amir Nejad and Dr. Michaela Ibrion was published as a part of "UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development" in connection with a special issue magazine in partnership with UNESCO.

Illustration by Amir Nejad

- MD Lab article on "Viking Sky" and Healthprop project have attracted media - see this recent article by Motorship magazine highlighting opportunities that Digital Twin can bring in operational safety.

- MD Lab has contributed to the "UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development" with an article to a special issue magazine in partnership with UNESCO.

- Prof. Nejad was invited as a guest quiz master by the Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals (TEKNA) to discuss general engineering topics. The recorded session is available here (in Norwegian).

- Congratulations to Dr. Shuaishuai Wang for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled "Design and dynamic analysis of a 10-MW medium-speed drivetrain in offshore wind turbines" on 14 April 2021. Professors Torgeir Moan and Amir Nejad have been Shuaishuai's supervisors. Thanks to PhD evaluation committee: Professor Jan Helsen (Brussels Free University), Professor Yihan Xing (UiS) and Professor Zhen Gao (NTNU).

- Congratulations to Dr. Farid K. Moghadam for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled "Vibration-Based Condition Monitoring of Drivetrains in Large Offshore Wind Turbines in a Digital Twin Perspective" on 29 March 2021. Professors Amir Nejad, Eilif Pedersen and Kourosh Koushan have been Farid's supervisors. Thanks to PhD evaluation committee: Professor Simon Watson (TU Delft), Professor Jan Helsen (Brussels Free University), and Professor Erin Bachynski (NTNU).

- March 2021: HealthProp project will have a special session at OMAE 2021! Follow HealthProp results in OMAE 2021, symp. 7-9.

- Feb. 2021: MD Lab is a part of the newly awarded Research Center, FME Northwind, with about 50 industrial and research partners from around the world.

2020:

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Congratulations to Dr. Jone Torsvik for successfully defending his PhD thesis entitled "Dynamic Analysis in Design and Operation of Large Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Drivetrains" on 15 Dec. 2020. Professor Eilif Pedersen, Professor Amir Nejad, and Dr. Bjørn Skaare (Equinor) have been his supervisors. Thanks to PhD evaluation committee: Professor Jan Helsen (Brussels Free University), Professor Wolfgang Borutzky (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences) and Professor Erin Bachynski (NTNU).

(Photo by Bjørn Tore Bach)

2019:

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- The third Ocean Engineering Summer School, supported by “The Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium”, was held at the Marine Technology Department (IMT) from 12 August to 06 September. Students from different universities across Japan attended the Summer School at IMT. The school is a part of an initiative by the Nippon Foundation to strengthen the competence in ocean engineering in Japan. The students were offered a varied program, with lectures, exercises, lab and industry visits, and field trips. The Summer School was organized by Amir Nejad with supports from many of the staff at IMT. 

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- Dr. Zhengshun Cheng, Associate Professor from State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering Shanghai Jiao Tong University visited MD Lab on 5th Sep. and discussed the collaboration between SJTU and MD Lab.

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- 30 July 2019: As a part of collaboration between Marine System Dynamics and Vibration Lab (MD Lab), and Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG) at Stellenbosch University, Tor Magnus Aarskog has joined the research team on board of research vessel S. A. Agulhas II on the voyage from South Africa to the Antarctica for three weeks. Tor Magnus tasks include data collection and vibration measurements on different locations of the ship for further load effect analysis and health monitoring purposes during Antarctica voyage. The project is supervised by Amir Nejad (NTNU) and Annie Bekker (Stellenbosch University).

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- 16 May 2019: Prof. Annie Bekker, director of the Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG) from the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch, gave a lecture on the full scale vibration measurements and operational modal analysis of a research vessel.

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- May 2019: During the last summer in 2018, a group of students from Marine Technology Department developed a digital twin of NTNU’s research vessel Gunnerus with collaboration with DNV-GL (see the demo here). Lars R. O. Bjørum, who was one of the group members, continued the work further in the master thesis in 2019 and worked to develop a method for Remaining Useful Life (RUL) calculation of thrusters which will be integrated in the digital twin platform.  

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- In March 2019, Lorenzo Balestra, visiting student from University of Bologna, defended successfully his thesis with the title: “On Design and Analysis of a Drivetrain Test Rig for Wind Turbine Health Monitoring”. His thesis was awarded the highest grade at University of Bologna. He carried out his thesis at MD lab with Prof. Nejad as main supervisor and Prof. Naldi (University of Bologna) as co-supervisor. Well done Lorenzo!

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- 14 March 2019: MD Lab received delegation from Shanghai Marine Equipment Research Institute (SMERI). Prof. Nejad presented the activities at MD Lab to Dr. Li, Associate Director, and a group of six delegates from SMERI and discussed common interests.

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- On Friday 1st March 2019, the marine dynamic lab, as a part of the MD Lab was officially inaugurated. This lab is the educational part of the MD Lab with equipment and test rigs demonstrating dynamic and vibration principles. Through lab exercises students will have better understanding of dynamic modelling and analysis in marine applications which will be used in different courses in the marine engineering master study program.

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2018:

- On 15-16th Oct. 2018: Visit and lecture at the Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG), Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch (Photos by Prof. Annie Bekker, SVRG).

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- On 3rd Oct. 2018: Prof. Wim Desmet, head of the vibration and noise group at KU LEUVEN, and Dr. Shawn Sheng, wind turbine drivetrain researcher at National Renewable Lab, visited MD Lab and discussed ongoing activities and research with Prof. Nejad. 

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- The second Ocean Engineering Summer School, supported by “The Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium”, was held at Marine Technology Department (IMT) from 13 August to 07 September this summer. Students from nine different universities across Japan attended the Summer School at IMT. The school is a part of an initiative by Nippon Foundation to strengthen the competence in ocean engineering in Japan. The students are offered a varied program, with lectures, exercises, laboratory, and field trips. This year's Summer School was organized by Amir Nejad with supports from many of the staff at IMT as well as colleagues at NTNU Ålesund. Some students from the summer school carried out their projects at MD Lab on fault detection and vibration analysis. 

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- MD Lab received a marine gear train from Servogear, which is greatly appreciated and thanked for.