Mark Malowicki
Office: 300 New Engineering Building Mechanical Engineering Department
Tel: 540-231-2910 Virginia Tech
Fax: 540-231-2903 Blacksburg, VA 24061-0261
E-mail: mmalowic@vt.edu
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Mark Malowicki grew up in the foothills of the Adirondacks in Upstate New York, and received his BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 1994. After several years working for General Motors Powertrain (Large Front Wheel Drive Transmissions) in Ypsilanti and in Milford, Michigan, he returned to Virginia Tech to pursue a Masters Degree in the fall of 1998. Hobbies and interests include mountain biking, road biking, playing guitar, hiking, camping, and skiing.
- Active Vibration Control of a Lightweight Automotive Seat Using Smart Materials - Mass reduction has been an ever increasingly important goal in the auto industry, and weight savings become particularly crucial in optimizing the overall efficiency of the hybrid electric vehicles of tomorrow. Passenger seats offer a good opportunity to shave off a few kilograms, but the gains often incur some loss in the vibration isolation characteristics that are responsible for us enjoying a nice, comfy ride. The focus of my research is to recover this loss (and perhaps realize improved isolation) by means of an active seat suspension to isolate the driver and passengers from the bumps and shakes of daily driving. A piezoelectric actuator (a layered, pre-stressed unimorph) is used as the active element in the seat suspension system.
- Test Stand - A test stand has been constructed to evaluate the frequency response function of a seat. The stand consists of an electodynamic shaker used to move a linear motion (vertical) shaker table. Click here for a picture of the test setup.
- Modeling - A MATLAB model is used to evaluate actuator force and stroke requirements.
- Results - Click here for some preliminary results.
- Actuator - A actuator system, using
Thunder devices, is currently under construction.
- Sponsor -Daimler-Chrysler Liberty Technical Center, Program Manager: Stephen Buckley.
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Click here for a pdf version of my resume.
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