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Noise and Vibration

Extensive project experience identifying the root causes of vibration, shock, and noise. Applications have included:

• Vibration and noise produced by durable household goods, such as washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators
• Noise produced by fans in various consumer products, industrial settings, and in automotive vehicle interiors, such as for air filters, HVAC and ventilation, cooling systems, and other forced convection systems
• Vibration and noise resulting from recreational activities like weightlifting, boxing, treadmill use, and other machines
• Vibration and human discomfort resulting from whole-body vibration in transportation systems associated with chassis construction, subframe design, interfaces, mounts, and bushings
• Vibration in medical equipment resulting in operational errors or patient discomfort
• Analyzing seat suspension and seat cushioning design to reduce transmitted vibration to vehicular occupants in passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and tractor trailer cabs
• Shock and impact induced by hail and other falling objects on asphalt shingle roofs
• Vibration problems in down-hole applications associated with gas and oil drilling
• Vibration produced by engines, pumps, and other reciprocating machinery

Developed rubber components for vibration and shock damping. Applications have included:

• Air compressors
• Air filtration mounts
• Automotive seat suspensions
• Bulb seals, door seals, and sealing solutions for insulated glass units (IGUs) and windows
• Fitness flooring products
• Flooring underlayment, isolators, and dampers
• HVAC mounts and isolators
• Lawnmowers
• Pneumatic chipping guns, hammer drills, and other hand-held power tools
• Subframe inserts and bushings
• Washing machine dampers and noise attenuation methods

Extensive experience analyzing community noise and vibration complaints resulting from construction, commercial, industrial, and recreational activities, and proposing remediation plans to alleviate outstanding concerns. Applications have included:

• Community reactions to construction noise and vibration
•  Community reactions to noise from commercial, industrial, and municipal activities
• Community reactions to pickleball noise
• Complaints associated with vibration- and shock-induced noise resulting from fitness facilities, such as due to weight drops, treadmills, and use of other exercise equipment
• Classroom and auditorium acoustics and optimizing for speech intelligibility
• Vibration in cold chain and supply chain settings to mitigate damage to pharmaceuticals and consumer goods
• Equipment noise and consumer product noise complaints

Extensive experience analyzing the audibility of sounds, including alarms, warnings, and other acoustic alerts. Applications have included:

• Audibility of vehicular warnings, such as passenger vehicle horns, vehicle backup alarms, vehicle equipment and component sounds, and train horns
• Audibility of device warning sounds, such as from medical equipment and consumer electronics
• Audibility of alerts as predicted by data-driven and theoretical models of human hearing and cognitive response

Developed vibration- and wave-based structural health monitoring hardware and software to monitor symptoms of system wear, fatigue, and failure. Applications have included:

• Vibration and wave transmission through cellular poroelastic foams
• Ultrasound imaging and analysis of damage and failure attributes in cellular glass (FOAMGLAS)
• Detection of cracks and defects in solids and composites using wave-based monitoring methods

Developed materials to resist blast penetration under extreme high strain-rate dynamic loads. Applications have included:

• Blast resistance of polyurea composites, and development of manufacturing methods for the same
• Impact resistance of asphalt shingles, and design of damage-tolerant shingle underlayment

Industrial and Occupational Safety and Product Liability

Experience investigating numerous incidents of industrial and occupational safety or product liability such as:

• Incidents of noise exposure in occupational and community settings
• Falls, incidents in confined spaces, equipment malfunctions, and other workplace hazards
• Incidents involving hazardous energy control and lockout/tagout
• Securing, strapping, and tying down cargo
• Machine safety, including guarding, controls for automated devices, and various manufacturing equipment
• Incidents regarding safety training and site responsibilities
• Alleged failures or defects in consumer and building products such as exercise equipment, automatic doors, power tools

HVAC, Plumbing, and Wastewater Management

Experience investigating mechanical aspects of construction including:

• Heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) design, installation, and performance in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities
• Design, installation, and operation of plumbing or drain systems in residential structures for wastewater flows
• Design, installation, and operation of septic systems for wastewater management, including septic tanks, drain fields, sand mounds, and suitable soil percolation
• Investigations into the design and operation of municipal wastewater treatment facilities

Medical Devices and Underwater Acoustics

Experience investigating the safe and effective operation and use of medical devices, including ultrasound-based equipment, such as:

• Medical ultrasound devices for imaging, therapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation, shockwaves, cavitation, and lithotripsy.
• Medical ultrasound devices for imaging, therapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation, shockwaves, cavitation, and lithotripsy.
• Medical devices for endoscopy, balloon angioplasty, and other devices used for minimally invasive procedures.

Experience investigating numerous problems of underwater acoustics such as:

• Underwater sound, acoustic source localization, and other practices of SONAR and time-of-flight (ToF) measurement technologies.
• Acoustic image reconstruction, acoustic source localization, acoustic signal classification, and other requirements.
• Acoustic arrays for acoustic cameras, acoustic monitoring, loudspeaker arrays, and other transmission and receiving applications.

Manufacturing

Experience in the design and manufacture of polymers and rubber using a variety of industrial molding processes:

• Extrusion molding
• Compression molding
• Injection molding
• Transfer molding
• Thermoforming
• Casting
• Foam molding

Intellectual Property

Experience in the management, prosecution, and protection of intellectual property, including efforts such as:

• Patent formulation and claim construction pertaining to mechanical devices, consumer products, manufacturing technology, and acoustic systems
• Patent infringement and assessment of infringed claim limitations
• Patent invalidity and analysis of prior art

Dr. Harne has published over 100 journal articles and an h-index of 31. A complete list of publications may be found at his Google Scholar webpage. A short list of significant, highly cited works is provided below.

C. El Helou, B. Grossmann, C.E. Tabor, P.R. Buskohl, and R.L. Harne. "Mechanical integrated circuit materials." Nature. 608:699-703. Aug. 2022.

C. El Helou, P.R. Buskohl, C.E. Tabor, and R.L. Harne. "Digital logic gates in soft, conductive mechanical metamaterials." Nature Communications. 12:1633. Mar. 2021.

M. Pishvar and R.L. Harne. "Foundations for soft, smart matter by active mechanical metamaterials." Advanced Science. 7:2001384. Sept. 2020.

S. Cui and R.L. Harne. "Soft materials with broadband and near-total absorption of sound." Physical Review Applied. 12:064059. Dec. 2019.

S. Alharbi, S. Chaudhari, A. Inshaar, H. Shah, C. Zou, R.L. Harne, and A. Kiourti. "E-textile origami dipole antennas with graded embroidery for adaptive rf performance." IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. 17:2218-2222. Dec. 2018.

C. Lan, L. Tang, and R.L. Harne. "Comparative methods to assess harmonic response of nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvesters interfaced with AC and DC circuits." Journal of Sound and Vibration. 421:61-78. May 2018.

R.L. Harne, Z. Deng, and M.J. Dapino. "Adaptive magnetoelastic metamaterials: a new class of magnetorheological elastomers." Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures. 29:265-278. Jan. 2018.

R.L. Harne and K.W. Wang. Harnessing Bistable Structural Dynamics: for Vibration Control, Energy Harvesting and Sensing. Wiley. Chichester, United Kingdom. 2017. 408 pages.

R.L. Harne, Y. Song, and Q. Dai. "Trapping and attenuating broadband vibroacoustic energy with hyperdamping metamaterials." Extreme Mechanics Letters. 12:41-47. Feb. 2017.

R.L. Harne and D.T. Lynd. "Origami acoustics: using principles of folding structural acoustics for simple and large focusing of sound energy." Smart Materials and Structures. 25:085031. July 2016.

R.L. Harne, A. Sun, and K.W. Wang. "Leveraging nonlinear saturation-based phenomena in an L-shaped vibration energy harvesting system." Journal of Sound and Vibration 363:517-531. Feb 2016.

R.L. Harne, M. Thota, and K.W. Wang. "Concise and high-fidelity predictive criteria for maximizing performance and robustness of bistable energy harvesters." Applied Physics Letters. 102:053903. 2013.

R.L. Harne and K.W. Wang. "A review of the recent research on vibration energy harvesting via bistable systems." Smart Materials and Structures. 22:023001. 2013

A short list of significant presentations is given below.

R.L. Harne. "If I Only Had a Brain: Making Materials that can Muse". SPIE Smart Structures & Non-Destructive Evaluation Conference. March 14, 2023.

R.L. Harne. "Mechanical Materials that Sense, Think, React, and Learn." Johns Hopkins University. March 29, 2022.

R.L. Harne. "The Science and Applications of Mechanical Metamaterials." U.S. Government STEP Smart Materials and Intelligent Systems Seminar. October 7, 2021.

R.L. Harne. "Soft, Autonomous Engineered Matter." National Science Foundation Program Board. February 17, 2021.

R.L. Harne. "Smart Mechanical Matter." ASME SMASIS 2020 Conference. Virtual Keynote. September 15, 2020.

R.L. Harne. "Multifunctional Material Systems with Tunable Properties to Mitigate Vibration, Shock, and Sound." Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Auburn Hills, Michigan. October 19, 2018.

R.L. Harne. "Dynamic Behavior of Elastomeric Metastructures and Metamaterials Subjected to Shock and Vibration." ARO Workshop on "Meta-structures: Dynamics, Topology and Related Opportunities". Atlanta, Georgia. May 18, 2018

R.L. Harne. "Multifunctional Material Systems with Tunable Properties to Mitigate Vibration, Shock, and Sound." Ford Motor Company. Dearborn, Michigan. May 2, 2018

R.L. Harne. "Impedance-based Analysis and Response Prediction of Aerostructural Systems in Combined, Extreme Loading Environments." AFRL-University Collaborative Center in Structural Sciences, Air Force Research Laboratory. Dayton, Ohio. October 18, 2017.

R.L. Harne. "From Origami to Metamaterials: Waves Into and Out Of Tunable, Adaptive Structural and Material Systems." Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, Virginia. April 14, 2017.

R.L. Harne. "Vibration Energy Transfer in Solids and Structures: Perspectives and Projections." ARO Workshop on "The Future of Vibration Energy Transfer in Solids and Structures: Needs and Opportunities". University of Washington. Seattle, Washington. October 18, 2016.

R.L. Harne and Q. Dai. "Energy-Generating Mechanical Trees." In the audience of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco at the Sustainability Research Luncheon. The Ohio State University, The Ohio Stadium. Columbus, Ohio. August 31, 2016.

R.L. Harne. "Creating Exceptional and Adaptive Vibroacoustic Performance and Functionality in Structural/Material Systems." Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory. Dayton, Ohio. March 18, 2016.

R.L. Harne. "Energy Transfer Principles Drawn from Understanding the Dynamics of Bistable Structures." NSF Workshop on "Energy Transport and Control in Solids and Structures". Arlington, Virginia. May 27, 2015.

Science Advances

Nature Communications, Nature Scientific Reports

Advanced Materials and Adv. Mat. family of journals

ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and other ASME Journals

Applied Physics Letters

Smart Materials and Structures

Extreme Mechanics Letters

Journal of Sound and Vibration

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Proceedings of the Royal Society A

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures

International Journal of Solids and Structures

Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing

Associate Editor, 2020-present, ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics

Associate Editor, 2017-2023, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Signal Processing in Acoustics

James F. Will Career Development Professor, Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 2020-2023.

Principal, The Sound Enterprise, 2021-2023.

Professor, Mechanical Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2015-2020.

Chief Technology Officer, HyperDamping, Inc., 2018-2023.

US Patent Application # 63/249,084. "Integrated Circuit Design for Digital Computing and Information Processing of Mechanical Signals". 13 April 2021.

International Patent Application # WO 2021/188671. "Apparatuses, Systems, and Materials for Stiffness and Damping Control Including Ribbed Geometry, and Associated Methods".

International Patent Application # WO 2020/210395. "Materials Having Tunable Properties, and Related Systems and Methods".

US Patent Application # US 2021/0285512. "Materials Having Graded Internal Geometry, and Associated Systems and Methods"

Patent # US 10/458,501. "Designs and Manufacturing Methods for Lightweight Hyperdamping Materials Providing Large Attenuation of Broadband-Frequency Structure-Borne Sound."

Patent # US 10/546,572. "Folded Transducer Array for Compact and Deployable Wave-Energy Guiding System."