Wednesday 14th March, Ester Creixell Mediante sucessfully defended her Ph-d project entitled: Computational reduction techniques for numerical vibro-acoustic analysis of hearing aids.
The PhD written and defended by Ester Creixell Mediante investigates three aspects of the application of numerical methods to the design of hearing aids: i) the modelling of the mechanical contact between assembled parts, ii) reduction of the computational load by model order reduction and iii) application of topology optimization.
The PhD was carried out in collaboration with the hearing aid producer company Oticon under the Danish industrial PhD scheme with the general objective of the three topics being to contribute to a faster more insightful and efficient design and analysis process of hearing aids.
The work has original contributions in the area of contact modelling, where ideas like Fourier decomposition and parameter reduction are brought in. The problem is of clear industrial relevance and the candidate is one of the first to introduce it into vibro-acoustic modelling.
The candidate has addressed some other challenging topics, including the parametric model order reduction of coupled vibro-acoustic systems, both for interior as well as exterior problems, and their usage in a topology optimization context.
This is the first application of topology optimization to hearing aid systems in particular, and one of the first in vibro-acoustic optimization in general. In particular, the error estimator that drives the automated model order reduction within the topology optimization context will have an important practical impact.
The examiners were in agreement that Ester had given an excellent presentation covering all aspects of the reported work. She managed to deliver a concise outlook of the thesis in a very didactical manner and demontrated a mastery of the field through her answers to the questions from the committee. Her ability to discuss the pros and cons of the work is at a level that most definitaly meets the international standards of a PhD graduate.
Ester has reported and presented a solid and innovative piece of work that combines both novel ideas and has a practical impact in the industry. A substantial amount of work has been done including both numerical developments as well as experimental validations.
The project was an industrial PhD in collaboration with Oticon
Principal supervisor: Associate Professor Jonas Brunskog , DTU Elektro
Co-supervisors: Professor Jakob Søndergaard Jensen
Examiners: Associate Professor Vicente Cutanda Henriquez, DTU Elektro
Professor Wim Desmet, KU Leuven, Belgium
Professor Steffen Marburg, TU München, Germany
Chairman of Defence: Cheol-Ho Jeong, DTU Elektro
Congratulations to Ester