1. UCL Home
  2. Research institutes
  3. Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering
  4. About
  5. Members

Members

IMMC

Bruno Dehez
Professor
Contact
Recent publications




Research group(s): MEED

PhD and Post-doc researchers under my supervision:

Traction2020
Virginie Kluyskens

The aim of the project "TRACTION 2020 - Development of a high efficiency and high reliability railway traction" is the reduction of the consumption of electrical energy in railway traction. The hope is to improve by about 5% the efficiency of the traction chain, while also keeping in mind criteria like reliability, price and life cycle cost. In this context, our research concerns more specifically two components of the traction chain: (i) the electric motor converting the electrical energy into mechanical energy: a synchronous reluctance motor and (ii) the magnetic gear inserted between the motor and the axle of the boogie. Our objective is to propose the optimal electromagnetic design for these two components.


A dynamic-based approach for road vehicle design optimization
Aubain Verle

Due to urban zone densification and energy rarefaction, some facets of life habits have to be revised. The mobility doesn’t derogate from this trend and is one of the major future challenges. Automotive industry is developing new solutions to cope with the increasing problem of mobility, the need for energy efficiency and customer requirements. Facing this multiplication of objectives, often conflicting, it is quite unlikely that one particular solution would satisfy all customers in all daily needs as it was with the car until now. Several new kinds of vehicles appear, each of them being able to answer a particular use. In the special case of urban and personal mobility, tilting three-wheelers seem to be a promising solution. Small and agile, they improve the traffic flow while the associated reduction of weight allows better energy efficiency.
Because of the increase – in number and quality – of the criteria imposed to tomorrow’s vehicles, the industry must propose new types of morphologies, incorporate new technologies and detect a maximum of synergies between the latter. Thus we observe a constant increasing design tasks complexity while the development times are shorter than ever. There is a real need for global design methodologies that include, from the earliest stage of the process, a multitude of components among which the dynamics takes place.
This work aims at developing a design methodology especially dedicated to road vehicles. The method has the particularity to enable to manage the trade-off between dynamic performances and mechanical feasibility. The method is being applied to a new three-wheeler under development in our laboratory. The main characteristics of this vehicle are a unipersonal seated position, a narrow track and a electric motorization.
We achieved the design of a first prototype on the basis of the optimization processes. In particular, we develop some very specific mechanical arrangements especially designed to maximize the dynamic performances of the tilting vehicle suspensions. Moreover, it is expected that a first implementation of the prototype will be built in the future to carry out some comparison between experiment and simulation.


Designing the next generation of ankle prostheses: towards efficient and lightweight designs
François Heremans

Over the last decade, active lower-limb prostheses demonstrated their ability to restore a physiological gait for transfemoral amputees by supplying the required positive energy balance during daily life locomotion activities.
However, the added-value of such devices is significantly impacted by their limited energetic autonomy, excessive weight and cost preventing their full appropriation by the users. There is thus a strong incentive to produce active yet affordable, lightweight and energy efficient devices.
To address these issues, we are developing the ELSA (Efficient Lockable Spring Ankle) prosthesis embedding both a lockable parallel spring and a series elastic actuator, tailored to the walking dynamics of a sound ankle. The first contribution concerns the developement of a bio-inspired, lightweight and stiffness adjustable parallel spring, comprising an energy efficient ratchet and pawl mechanism with servo actuation. The second contribution is the addition of a complementary rope-driven series elastic actuator to generate the active push-off.
Our new system produces a sound ankle torque pattern during flat ground walking. Up to 50% of the peak torque is generated passively at a negligible energetic cost (0.1 J/stride). By design, the total system is lightweight (1.2 kg) and low cost.


Design and modelling of electrodynamic thrust bearings for driven passive magnetic suspensions
Joachim Van Verdeghem

This research focuses on magnetic electrodynamic bearings as well as self-bearing machines and, more precisely, the development of a new type of passively levitated self-bearing motors within which both the driving and axial guidance functions are integrated in a single winding. Its main purposes are to design new topologies of such a machine, to derive models allowing us to study the six degrees of freedom of the rotor and to optimize the performance on the basis of key criteria that have to be defined. In addition, several prototypes will be constructed to demonstrate the feasibility of this new machine as well as to validate the dynamic models.


Permanent magnet thrust bearing in flywheel energy storage system
Maxence Van Beneden

A flywheel energy storage system is an appropriate storage system for railway applications, to store the braking energy of a train untill needed for the acceleration of another train.
Our research concerns the permanent magnet bearing of this system. By stacking permanent magnet rings, we allow to develop the needed thrust force while using a minimum amount of permanent magnet volume. Simple and general scaling laws allowing a fast sizing have been proposed for different bearing geometries; with and without iron.
The behavior of the permanent magnet bearing with the operating temperature has also been studied.


Comparison of slotted and slotless PM machines
Nicolas Verbeek

/


Recent publications

See complete list of publications

Journal Articles


1. Van Verdeghem, Joachim; Kluyskens, Virginie; Dehez, Bruno. Experimental Investigations on Passively Levitated Electrodynamic Thrust Self-Bearing Motors. In: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 55, no. 5, p. 4743 - 4753 (2019). doi:10.1109/TIA.2019.2926659. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/217744

2. Dehem, Stéphanie; Montedoro, vincezana; Brouwers, Isaline; Edwards, Martin; Detrembleur, Christine; Stoquart, gaetan; Renders, Anne; Heins, Sophie; Dehez, Bruno; Lejeune, Thierry. Validation of a robot serious game assessment protocol for upper limb motor impairment in children with cerebral palsy. In: NeuroRehabilitation, Vol. 45, no.2, p. 137-149 (2019). doi:10.3233/nre-192745. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/226415

3. Van Verdeghem, Joachim; Kluyskens, Virginie; Dehez, Bruno. Stability and Performance Analysis of Electrodynamic Thrust Bearings. In: Actuators, Vol. 8, no. 1, p. 11 (2019). doi:10.3390/act8010011. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/212653

4. Kluyskens, Virginie; Van Verdeghem, Joachim; Dehez, Bruno. Experimental Investigations on Self-Bearing Motors with Combined Torque and Electrodynamic Bearing Windings. In: Actuators, Vol. 8, no. 2, p. 48 (2019). doi:10.3390/act8020048. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/216512

5. Montedoro, Vincenza; Alsamour, Marie; Dehem, Stéphanie; Lejeune, Thierry; Dehez, Bruno; Edwards, Martin. Robot diagnosis test for egocentric and allocentric hemineglect. In: Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, Vol. 34, no. 4, p. 481-494 (1/6/2019). doi:10.1093/arclin/acy062. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/203888

6. Van Verdeghem, Joachim; Lefebvre, Martin; Kluyskens, Virginie; Dehez, Bruno. Dynamical Modelling of Passively Levitated Electrodynamic Thrust Self-Bearing Machines. In: IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 55, no. 2, p. 1447-1460 (March-April 2019). doi:10.1109/TIA.2018.2880422. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/208102

7. Heins, Sophie; Dehem, Stéphanie; Montedoro, Vincenza; Stoquart, Gaëtan; Edwards, Martin; Dehez, Bruno; Rocca, Francois; De Deken, Pierre-Henri; Mancas, Matei; Lejeune, Thierry. Robotic-assisted serious gamefor motor and cognitive post-stroke rehabilitation. In: Robotic-assisted serious game for motor and cognitive post-stroke rehabilitation, p. 1-8. doi:10.1109/SeGAH.2017.7939262. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/186314

8. Dehem, Stéphanie; Stoquart, Gaëtan; Montedoro, Vincenza; Edwards, Martin; Heins, Sophie; Dehez, Bruno; Lejeune, Thierry. L’apport de nouvelles technologies dans la rééducation motrice et cognitive des patients cérébro-lésés. In: Louvain médical, Vol. 136, no. 2, p. 99-101 (2017). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/183890

9. Dumont de Chassart, Corentin; Gilson, Adrien; Kluyskens, Virginie; Espanet, Christophe; Dehez, Bruno. Evaluation of the electrodynamic forces in high-speed permanent magnet machines with rotor eccentricity. In: Mechanical Engineering Journal, [Advance publication], Vol. 4, no.5, p. 17-000072 (2017). doi:10.1299/mej.17-00072. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/195746

10. Dumont de Chassart, Corentin; Kluyskens, Virginie; Dehez, Bruno. Performance of Yokeless Heteropolar Electrodynamic Bearings. In: Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Journal, Vol. 32, no. 8, p. 685-690 (2017). http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/195749


Patents


1. Sapin, Julien; Dehez, Bruno; Gilliaux, Maxime. Rehabilitation system and method. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179841 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179841

2. Baudart, François; Dehez, Bruno. Winding for a rotating electrical machine and method for designing such a winding. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179849 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179849

3. Sapin, Julien; Dehez, Bruno. Upper limbs rehabilitating, monitoring and/or evaluating interactive device. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179843 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179843

4. Everarts, Christophe; Dehez, Bruno; Ronsse, Renaud. Continuously Variable Planetary Transmission. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/169001 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/169001

5. Baudart, François; Dehez, Bruno. Winding for an electrical machine. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179850 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/179850

6. Dehez, Bruno; Elhaut, Thibault. Magnet and method for designing a magnet. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/130662 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/130662

7. Dehez, Bruno; Kluyskens, Virginie; Dumont de Chassart, Corentin; Van Beneden, Maxence. radial electrodynamic bearing. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/153953 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/153953

8. Sapin, Julien; Didier, Pierre; Attanasi, Arnaud; Dehez, Bruno. Rehabilitation robot. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/83556 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/83556


Conference Papers


1. François, Guillaume; Baudart, Francois; Dehez, Bruno. Influence of eddy current losses in the optimization of linear coreless BLDC motors with PCB windings. In: 2019 12th International Symposium on Linear Drives for Industry Applications (LDIA), IEEE, 2019, 9781538658048. doi:10.1109/ldia.2019.8771023. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/218668

2. Van Verdeghem, Joachim; Dehez, Bruno. Experimental Characterisation of Tilt Stabilisation within Passively Levitated Electrodynamic Thrust Self-Bearing Motors. In: 2019 IEEE International Electric Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC), IEEE, 2019, 9781538693506. doi:10.1109/iemdc.2019.8785292. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/218619

3. François, Guillaume; Baudart, Francois; Dehez, Bruno. Analytical Estimation of Eddy Current Losses in PCB Winding for the Optimal Sizing of PM Slotless Motor. In: 2019 IEEE International Electric Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC), IEEE, 2019, 9781538693506. doi:10.1109/iemdc.2019.8785355. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/218667

4. De Gréef, Christophe; Kluyskens, Virginie; Henrotte, François; Geuzaine, Christophe; Dehez, Bruno. Impact of Flux Barriers Type and Parameterization in Reluctance Machine Torque Optimization. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/225115

5. Heremans, François; Vijayakumar, Sethu; Bouri, Mohamed; Dehez, Bruno; Ronsse, Renaud. Bio-inspired design and validation of the Efficient Lockable Spring Ankle (ELSA) prosthesis. In: 2019 IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), IEEE, 2019, 9781728127552. doi:10.1109/icorr.2019.8779421. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/221894

6. Timmermans, Sébastien; Fisette, Paul; Dehez, Bruno; Ceulemans, Anne-Emmanuelle. Real-Time Validation of a Haptic Piano Key based on a Multibody Model. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/210399

7. Timmermans, Sébastien; Fisette, Paul; Dehez, Bruno. Application and Validation of a Linear Electromagnetic Actuator within a Haptic Piano Keyboard. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/207813

8. Kluyskens, Virginie; Van Verdeghem, Joachim; Dumont de Chassart, Corentin; Dehez, Bruno. Experimental Investigations on a Heteropolar Electrodynamic Bearing - Self-Bearing Motor. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/203750

9. Heremans, François; Dehez, Bruno; Ronsse, Renaud. Design and Validation of a Lightweight Adaptive and Compliant Locking Mechanism for an Ankle Prosthesis. In: 2018 7th IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (Biorob), IEEE, 2018, 978-1-5386-8183-1. doi:10.1109/biorob.2018.8487209. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/204148

10. Timmermans, Sébastien; Fisette, Paul; Ceulemans, Anne-Emmanuelle; Dehez, Bruno. Haptic Piano Key based on a Real-Time Multibody Model of the Double Escapement Grand Piano Action. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/201139


Book Chapters


1. Denies, Jonathan; Dehez, Bruno; Glineur, François; Ben Ahmed, Hamid. Impact of the material distribution formalism on the efficiency of evolutionary methods for topology optimization. In: Recent Advances in Optimization and its Applications in Engineering , Springer: Heidelberg, 2010, p. 489-498. 978-3-642-12597-3. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-12598-0_40. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/94924

2. Dehez, Bruno; Froidmont, Vincent; Grenier, Damien; Raucent, Benoît. Design and Modelling of a Two Degrees of Freedom Spherical Actuator with Unlimited Angular Range. In: Recent Advances in Mechatronics , xxx, 1999, 522-535. 978-981-4021-34-0. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/108623


Books


1. Dehez, Bruno; Grenier, Damien; Labrique, Francis; Matagne, Ernest. Électromécanique Principes physiques Principaux convertisseurs Principales applications. Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2018. 978-2-87558-635-3. 372 pages. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/203920


Dissertations


1. Dehez, Bruno. Elaboration et application d'une approche multidisciplinaire pour la conception d'un actionneur électrique à rotor sphérique, prom. : Raucent, Benoît ; Grenier, Damien, 2004-06-30. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/5193