Professor and FWO post-doctoral researcher
Address:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Faculty of Applied Sciences
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Building Z – Room ZW119
Pleinlaan 2
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 629 23 90
Fax: +32 2 6292865
GSM: +32 477412049
Email: christof.devriendt(a)vub.be
Biography
Devriendt Christof was born in Ostend, Belgium, 1981. With the European Erasmus-program he studied one year in Portugal at the Instituto Superior Tecnico, were he wrote his Master-thesis. He received the degree in mechanical-electrotechnical engineering in 2004 from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. After his stay in Lisbon he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MECH) in the Acoustics & Vibration Research Group (AVRG). He received in 2005 a scholarship from the IWT to start a phd. He obtained his phd in april 2010 and was soon after granted a FWO position to continue his research on a post-doctoral level. His main research interests are situated in the field of system identification, modal analysis and structural health monitoring.
Since 2011 Christof Devriendt is the research coordinator of the “Offshore Wind Infrastructure Lab” or OWI-lab (www.owi-lab.eu). OWI-Lab has grown into the Flemish R&D platform for companies active in the wind energy sector. It is controlled by a dynamic user group with more than 30 members and has contacts with a total of more than 100 companies in the sector. VUB has as founding partner and scientific coordinator of OWI-lab a leading role within this initiative.
Currently OWI-lab (VUB) operates permanently installed structural monitoring equipment on 8 offshore wind turbine substructures in the Belgian North Sea. These experiments have been operational since 2011 and are still ongoing. In total of the equivalent of 20 years of data is now part of the OWI-lab database. As such OWI-lab operates today’s largests offshore structural monitoring research database which is unique in the number of turbines, quality of sensors and longevity.
As Scientific coordinator of OWI-lab he bridges industry with academia and has counselled dozens of researchers to research in the field of wind industry. He is member of the board of EAWE, the European Academy of Wind energy, The Brussels wind energy Research Institute BruWind and was recently appointed chairman of BERA-wind, part of the Belgian Energy Research Alliance.
Since 2016 he is also the co-founder of the OWI-lab (VUB) spin-off company 24SEA (www.24sea.eu). 24SEA develops testing services and monitoring solutions for offshore structures. The motivation is gaining the insights that are crucial to optimise the design of future offshore structures, improve their operations and maintenance, and where possible extend their lifetime. 24SEA is currently the leading independent structural monitoring partner on the Belgium market of Offshore Wind and Marine Renewables. 24SEA key clients in Belgium include (not limited to): Parkwind (Belwind, Northwind, Nobelwind), C-Power, Rentel, Norther, GeoSea, Smulders, Jan De Nul. 24SEA has references in Belgium, Germany, UK, The Netherlands, and is currently approaching the French market.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Acoustics and Vibration Research Group
http://www.avrg.vub.be/
Scientific Research Coordinator OWI-lab
http://www.owi-lab.be
Owner / Manager 24SEA
http://24sea.eu
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