The Group of Mechanical Measures, Thermal and Testing was established and developed under the coordination of Prof. Enrico Primo Tomasini, now retired, at the former Department of Mechanics.; it has then developed after the institution of the new Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.
To date, the group is composed of five professors, two researchers and about twenty-five people including PhD students, post-doc grant holders, contractors and secretarial staff.
Since 2000 the group has extended its scientific and didactic activities to the field of Biomedical Instrumentation and Clinical Engineering.
The group carries out both teaching and research activities.
The research activity concerns the study, analysis and design of methods, procedures and instruments for the measurement of mechanical and thermal quantities. The application areas of these methods and tools are the most diverse and vary from aeronautics to industrial production, to the conservation of artistic heritage, to measurements for and on humans, to measurements for home automation, to non-destructive testing, etc.
The research activity is mainly carried out in the context of research projects of the European Union (more than 40 financed projects from 1984 to present), through research projects financed by national bodies (MIUR, CNR, ASI, INAIL, etc.) or in close collaboration with industrial partners, in the context of industrial research and technology transfer projects financed by regional, national and international programs.
The teaching activity covers the courses of: “Mechanical and Thermal Measurements“, “Measurement and Control for Industry“, “Mechanical Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation“, “Thermo-technical Measurements and Controls“, “Diagnostic Methods and Instruments“, “Measures for Quality Management “, “Applied Measurement Techniques“, “Instruments and methods for vibration measurements”, “Post-processing software systems and image archiving system”, ”Electronic components and electronic equipments“, at the Faculty of engineering (Ancona, and Fermo) and at the School of Medicine of UNIVPM.
The group conducts research concerning the development and application of measurement systems. Much of the activity is focused on non-invasive measurement techniques, based on electro-optical technologies, vision (in the visible and in the infrared) or on acoustic or ultrasound techniques. The research takes place mainly in the context of collaborative projects, largely funded by the European Commission.
In the field of measurement techniques based on electro-optical technologies, the group has carried out research on interferometric techniques (laser Doppler), photoelastic techniques, optical fiber sensors, and vision in different spectral bands.
As part of the vibro-acoustic measurement techniques, the group carried out research on the topics of experimental vibration analysis, and on acoustic measurement techniques based on microphones arrays, such as beam-forming.
With reference to ultrasound techniques, the focus is on non-contact ultrasound and on laser-ultrasonics.
The laboratory allows the development of prototypes of measurement systems, typically up to a TRL-7. Thanks to the wide range of instruments, the research group has the capacity to carry out research activities applied to industrial problems both in the laboratory and in the field.
Hereunder the list of the research activities:
