Dr Tugrul Comlekci
Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Personal statement
I am a chartered mechanical engineer (CEng MIMechE) and an academic member of staff specialising in research and knowledge exchange activities with industrial applications at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department and the Weir Advanced Research Centre.
In summary I am involved in:
- Advanced finite element analysis of safety critical structures, such as:
- Design assessment and optimization,
- Structural integrity R&D into the oil and gas industry, energy generation / wind turbine applications, welded structures,
- Experimental analysis and testing of structures, validating FEA.
- Development of innovative solutions to industrial problems with high impact, such as:
- Patented fracking pump fluidend valve seat design improved the fatigue life of pumps and now widely used in the Weir SPM products.
- Autofrettage optimisation solution developed & applied to numerous pump designs and the technology is transferred to Weir SPM.
- Wind turbine life assessment methodologies for SSE / Scottish Power.
- Weld distortion analysis methodologies for BAE Systems.
My current research interests in general are in the following areas:
- Structural integrity assessment, solid mechanics and modelling, and developing numerical (such as finite element analysis) and experimental (such as for residual stress measurement) methodologies.
- Applications to pressure equipment (such as in the oil and gas industry applications), energy generation applications (such as in renewable energy from wind turbine structures), welding simulation (such as for naval vessel fabrication).
- Fatigue & corrosion fatigue analysis and experiments.
Publications
- Comparative fatigue analysis of structural steels considering welding and surface effects
- Gorash Yevgen, Comlekci Tugrul, Walker Carl, Toumpis Athanasios, Kelly James, England Andrew, Milne Lewis
- Strain Vol 61 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/str.70003
- Calibration of the DEM sliding friction and rolling friction parameters of a cohesionless bulk material
- Marin Perez Jonatan Emanuel, Comlekci Tugrul, Gorash Yevgen, MacKenzie Donald
- Particuology Vol 92, pp. 126-139 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2024.05.003
- Application of finite-life frequency sensitivity evaluation methods to UFT of ferritic structural steels
- Milne Lewis Andrew, Gorash Yevgen, Comlekci Tugrul, MacKenzie Donald
- Fatigue Design 2023, pp. 365-374 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2024.03.039
- Ultrasonic fatigue testing of structural steel S275JR+AR with insights into corrosion, mean stress and frequency effects
- Gorash Yevgen, Comlekci Tugrul, Styger Gary, Kelly James, Brownlie Frazer, Milne Lewis
- Materials Vol 16 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16051799
- Frequency effects in ultrasonic fatigue testing (UFT) of Q355B structural steel
- Milne Lewis Andrew, Gorash Yevgen, Comlekci Tugrul, MacKenzie Donald
- , pp. 623-630 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2022.12.079
- Structural steel crack propagation experimental and numerical analysis
- Comlekci Tugrul, Marin Perez Jonatan, Milne Lewis, Gorash Yevgen, MacKenzie Donald
- European Conference on Fracture 2022, pp. 694-701 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2022.12.088
Teaching
I have teaching interests in the subjects of: structural integrity, computer aided engineering design & finite eleent analysis (using ANSYS, PTC Creo, SolidWorks) as well as aeromechanical engineering and engineering business strategic analysis. I lecture undergraduate & postgraduate students in all years and run undergraduate, MSc and PhD projects.
Research Interests
WARC (Weir Advanced Research Centre): FEA Analysis, Fatigue, Plunger Pump Design
Welding research: Distortion analysis of stiffened thin plates
Pressure Systems:
- Stress analysis
- Finite element and Boundary Element Methods
- Thermoelastic Stress Analysis
Projects
- Development of a DEM tool for wear prediction and design optimisation of GET.
- Anwar, Ali (Principal Investigator) Comlekci, Tugrul (Co-investigator) Espinoza, Ashlee (Co-investigator)
- 02-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2027
- Polyurethane material testing (1)
- Comlekci, Tugrul (Principal Investigator) Yang, Liu (Co-investigator)
- 12-Jan-2024 - 30-Jan-2024
- Development of Sustainable Mining Equipment using Novel Fracture Mechanics based Structural Design Optimisation SRSS REA 2725 WARC International PhD Student
- Comlekci, Tugrul (Principal Investigator) Gorash, Yevgen (Co-investigator) MacKenzie, Donald (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2026
- TIC LCPE: Wind turbine fatigue life assessment and modelling; validation and implementation (WIND-01)
- Leithead, Bill (Principal Investigator) Comlekci, Tugrul (Co-investigator) Keegan, Mark (Co-investigator) McMillan, David (Co-investigator) Niewczas, Pawel (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2016 - 31-Jan-2018
- APESA (H2020 MSCA EID)
- MacKenzie, Donald (Principal Investigator) Comlekci, Tugrul (Co-investigator) Dempster, William (Co-investigator) Galloway, Alexander (Co-investigator) Stack, Margaret (Co-investigator) Stickland, Matthew (Co-investigator) Thomason, James (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2015 - 31-Jan-2019
- Finite Element Analysis of Mould Tool Copper Tubing
- Comlekci, Tugrul (Principal Investigator)
- 10-Jan-2015 - 10-Jan-2015
Contact
Dr
Tugrul
Comlekci
Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Email: t.comlekci@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 574 5047