Thomas Breunung’s structural dynamics research has broad and impactful applications across multiple fields.
In addition to applications in aerospace and energy harvesting, Breunung’s research can be useful for investigating phenomena ranging from rogue waves in the ocean to the vibrations of molecules in a biological system.
His research focuses on the nonlinear dynamics of structures: when the physical response or movement of a structure is not proportional to the amount of force being applied.
“In many cases, advanced engineering applications involve nonlinear dynamics,” says Breunung, who will join the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor in January 2025. “I want to see what happens when this nonlinear behavior occurs. It can have detrimental effects, such as causing instability or vibrations that can break a structure. But it can also have advantageous effects. For instance, we could leverage this motion for energy-harvesting applications where the vibration energy is converted into electricity.”
In his research, Breunung uses a blend of analytical studies, computational approaches and experiments, and he particularly enjoys the interdisciplinary nature of his work. “My research combines applied mathematics and physics with cutting-edge data science technologies and computer science to address engineering challenges, and I find it exciting to bring together all these areas,” he says.
Breunung received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical and process engineering from Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany. He earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich in Switzerland in 2020. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Breunung was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.
At the University of Maryland, Breunung worked with Professor Balakumar Balachandran to develop a new tool that can predict unusually large and seemingly random waves, known as rogue waves, up to five minutes in advance. The tool could give an early warning to ships and offshore oil rigs and installations to take safety measures.
To engineer the tool, the researchers trained a neural network to distinguish ocean waves that will be followed by a rogue wave from those that will not. They found their tool was able to correctly predict the emergence of 75% of rogue waves one minute into the future and 73% of rogue waves five minutes into the future. “With this project, we wanted to explore the capabilities of new tools from data science, such as AI and neural networks, to see if they could support an application that enhances safety,” Breunung says. “I was a bit uncertain about this project at the start because I didn’t have any experience with modeling ocean waves. But it turned out that some of the underlying theory and methods I’ve used in my previous research were very transferable to addressing this problem.”
Breunung says UW-Madison is an ideal place to establish his Dynamics, Structures and Data Lab. “The mechanical engineering department has a strong reputation for research and education, and everyone I’ve interacted with in the department has been very welcoming,” he says. “I’m happy to have this opportunity, and I’m very excited to collaborate with the many top-notch faculty at UW-Madison.”