Zissimos P. Mourelatos

The Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering department will be hosting a seminar on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at 11 a.m. in Alumni Memorial Hall, Room 222. The seminar will feature Zissimos P. Mourelatos, professor and chair of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., who will present his lecture, “Developments in Time-Dependent Reliability for Random Vibrations, Fatigue Life and Accelerated Life Testing.”

Random vibrations, durability and reliability of large-scale vibratory systems with millions of degrees of freedom are of significant importance in mechanical, civil and aerospace industries, among others. Reliability usually degrades with time, increasing the product lifecycle cost. Accelerated testing can assess durability and fatigue life under dynamic loads based on a few tests of short duration. Our approach uses available tests to first calibrate a simulation model which is then used to calculate the time-dependent reliability of a vibratory system. We will present recent advances in time-dependent reliability of linear vibratory systems with random parameters excited by non-stationary random loads. The proposed approach combines principles of random vibrations and time-dependent reliability using an integral equation approach involving up-crossing and joint up-crossing rates. The method  also has applications in fatigue life prediction and accelerated life testing. Examples will demonstrate the effectiveness of all developments.

Mourelatos is a professor of mechanical engineering and the John F. Dodge chair of engineering at Oakland University. He served as the chair of the mechanical engineering department at Oakland University from 2010-2014. Before joining Oakland University, he spent 18 years at the General Motors Research and Development Center. He conducts research in the areas of design under uncertainty, structural reliability methods, reliability analysis with insufficient data, Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO), vibrations and dynamics, and NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness). Mourelatos has published over 170 journal and conference publications and a book entitled, Decision Making under Uncertainty using Limited Information. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Reliability and Safety, an associate editor of the SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing, and SAE International Journal of Commercial Vehicles. He has also served as associate editor and guest co-editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. Mourelatos is a Fellow of ASME and SAE.