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Hatim Laalej

University teacher

Profile

Hatim Laalej received an MEng degree in Computer Systems Engineering in 2007 and a Ph.D. in Control Systems in 2010 for his research on nonlinear vibration control systems of civil and mechanical structures at the department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield. During his early academic years he won the Sir Harold West Award for the display of academic and personal promise (2003-2004), and the Mappin Medal and Premium Award for the greatest distinction achieved throughout the MEng Degree (2006-2007). 

After several years' postdoctoral positions at Sheffield, he initially joined Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) as a project engineer in 2014, was promoted to a technical lead in Process Monitoring & Control Group in 2017. His main expertise is related to control systems, sensors, data acquisition, and the application of these to resolving various manufacturing problems including spindle vibration control problems, condition monitoring for CNC machines and cutting tools as well as adaptive control of machine tools.

Research interests

• Tool embedded sensing technologies and signal processing techniques

• Tool condition monitoring (sensing, instrumentation, signal processing, and data acquisition systems)

• Condition monitoring of machine tools and computational Intelligence

• Digital manufacturing 

• Adaptive manufacturing and process control

• Passive, semi-active and active control of chatter vibration in machining applications.

Teaching modules

  • AMR21001 Control and Automation
  • AMR231 Engineering Systems and Control

Grants

  • Autonomous method for detecting cutting tool and machine tool anomalies in machining (EPSRC, £1m, 2020-2023)

Publications

  • Zhu YP, Lang ZQ & Laalej H (2019) Data driven evaluation of nonlinear output frequency response functions with applications to structural system fault diagnosis. 1st International Conference on Industrial Artificial Intelligence (IAI) (pp 1-6). Shenyang, China, 22 July 2019 - 26 July 2019.
  • Heeley  A, Hobbs M, Laalej H & Willmott J (2018) Miniature uncooled and unchopped fiber optic infrared thermometer for application to cutting tool temperature measurement. Journal of Sensors, 18, 10, pp.3188.
  • Laalej H, Salvador S & McLeay T (2016) A Flute Tracking System for Monitoring the Wear of Cutting Tools in Milling Operations. International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering, 10 (6).
  • Pope S & Laalej H (2014) A multi-layer active elastic metamaterial with tuneable and simultaneously negative mass and stiffness. Journal of Smart Materials and Structures, 23(7), 075020.
  • Pope S, Laalej H, Lang ZQ, Daley S & Reynolds M (2012) Active elastic metamaterials with reactive actuators. Inter-noise Conference, New York, USA.
  • Laalej H, Lang ZQ, Daley S, Zazas I & Sapiński B (2012) Integration of nonlinear damping with instantaneous harmonic control (IHC) for robust suppression of tonal disturbances. International Conference on Systems and Control, Marrakech, Morocco.
  • Laalej H & Lang ZQ (2012) MR damper based implementation of nonlinear damping for a pitch plane suspension system. Journal of Smart Materials and Structures, 21 (4), 045006.
  • Pope S, Laalej H, Lang ZQ & Daley S (2012) Performance and Stability of Active metamaterial. Journal of Smart Materials and Structures, 21(12), 125021.
  • Laalej H, Lang ZQ, Daley S, Zazas I, Billing SA & Tomlinson GR (2011) Application of non-linear damping to vibration isolation - an experimental study. Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics, 69, 409-421.
  • Laalej H & Lang ZQ (2010) Numerical investigation of the effects of MR damper characteristic parameters on vibration isolation of SDOF systems under harmonic excitations. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, 21(5), 483-501.