FRANCESCO MASSI

Courses:
 

• TRIBOLOGY  FOR SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING - 10612037 - Ingegneria Meccanica LM-33, 6 CFU, I Semester, II Year, English. - Note: the explanations will be given by the platform meet or by appointment, upon contact with the Professor by email (francesco.massi@uniroma1.it). Classroom code: on2uxzr5

• FONDAMENTI DI MECCANICA  - 1022834 - Ingegneria Elettrotecnica L-9, 9 CFU, I Semestre, II Anno, Italiano. - Nota: il ricevimento avrà luogo tramite la piattaforma meet o nell'ufficio del docente, previo appuntamento concordato con il docente via mail (francesco.massi@uniroma1.it). Codice corso: w55k4ryf

 
The material of the lessons will be published on the Classroom platform. Students are requested to register for the course via Classroom, or contact the teacher if problems (francesco.massi@uniroma1.it). The Classroom codes are listed above, in the list of the respective courses.

Actual position

Since 2021, Francesco Massi covers the position of Full Professor (Professore di I fascia) at the DIMA - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. The teaching activity covers the field of the applied mechanics; the research activities are focused on tribology, dynamics and biomechanics.

Previous experience

2013 – 2021 Associate Professor (Professore di II fascia) at the DIMA - Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
2007 – 2012 position of Maître de Conférences at the INSA of Lyon. The teaching service was shared between the mechanical department GMD (Génie Mécanique Développement) and the department “Premier Cycle” (1st and 2nd years) of the INSA of Lyon. The research position at the laboratory LaMCoS – UMR 5259 (Laboratoire de Mécanique des Contacts et des Structures) of the INSA of Lyon and of the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Member of the research group TMI (Tribologie et Mécanique des Interfaces).
2006 – 2007 Research contract at the LaMCoS in the framework of the European project BEARINGS (New generation of aeronautical bearings for extreme environmental constraints).
2003 – 2006 Ph.D. thesis « Dynamic and tribological analysis of brake squeal » in ‘cotutelle’ between the LaMCoS (INSA - Lyon) and the DMA (Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics) of the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, under the supervision of Pr. L. BAILLET and Pr. A. SESTIERI, defended the 5th of December 2006.
2003 (5 month) Master thesis at the Vibrations and Acoustics Laboratory of the Carnegie Mellon University - CMU of Pittsburgh (PN) , USA, under the supervision of Pr. A. AKAY and Pr. A. SESTIERI. Title: « Studio del fenomeno dello “squeal” dei freni a disco tramite sperimentazione su un freno da laboratorio ».

Diplômes

2006 Ph.D. in ‘Génie Mécanique’, INSA of Lyon / Ecole Doctorale MEGA (co-tutelle)
2006 Ph.D. in ‘Meccanica Teorica ed Applicata’, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ (co-tutelle)
2003 Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engeneering, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 110/110 with lode

Research activities

My research activities lie in applied mechanics with emphasis on on tribology, dynamics and biomechanics. The main research projects focus on the coupling between the tribological and dynamic behaviour of contact phenomena.
A general approach to the generation and propagation of waves at the sliding interface is developed for the understanding of several fundamental phenomena: friction-induced vibrations, friction noise, induced wear of contact surfaces under vibration, earthquakes, tactile sense, etc.
In parallel with the theoretical analysis, different applied issues (object of respective projects) are investigated: brake squeal, contact instabilities, false Brinelling wear, fretting, touch, transfer of energy between acoustic field through the friction nonlinearity. The approach used for investigating such issues includes both numerical and experimental analyses. While the experimental results allow for reproducing the phenomena, measuring the macroscopic behaviour and updating the numerical models, the numerical simulations allow for recovering local information that can not be obtained by experimental measurements. Numerical models and experimental setups have been developed in the framework the projects, for the understanding of the underneath physics and the role of the key parameters. The interaction between the system dynamics and the local behaviour at the contact interfaces is the main object of current research.
Co-director of 16 PhD thesis.

Scientific visibility (awards, scientific distinctions, committees,…)

- Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale alle funzioni di Professore universitario di Full professor (Professore I fascia) nel settore concorsuale 09/A2 - Meccanica Applicata Alle Macchine di cui all’articolo 1, del Decreto Direttoriale n. 161 del 28 gennaio 2013.
- Invited professor at the Tribology Research Institute of the Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China (1-11 August 2019).
- Invited professor at the Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives at the Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France (June 2022).
- Invited professor at the LaCube laboratory at the Central Lille university, Lille, France (June 2025).
- Junior Research Fellow of the SSAS “Scuola Superiore di Studi Avanzati Sapienza” (2014-2017).
- PES (Prime d’Excellence Scientifique), Education and Research Ministry, 2009-2013, France.
- Invited Panel Speaker at EUROBRAKE 2017 strategy panel on “advanced modelling for brake squeal prediction”, Dresden, Germany, May 2017.
- Invited Panel Speaker at Asia Brake Conference at the “Panel on Latest Academic Research”, Delhi, India, 2017.
- Invited Speaker at the 46th Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology, September 2019 Lyon.
- Invited Speaker at the Tribology Workshop XI’AN, Xi’an, China, 3-4 July 2019.
- Invited Speaker at the African Tribology Confernece 2022, Dakar, Senegal, 13-15 April 2022.
- Invited Speaker at the Asia Brake Conference, Delhi, India, 2024.
- Invited Speaker at the 2nd China-Europe Tribology Conference, Xi’an, China, 1-4 July 2025.
- Invited seminar “Tribologie : principe et méthodes analyses (vibrations induites), paramètres de surface” at the “Formation et Workshop du GDR TACT”, L2EP/IRCICA – University of Lille, 7-8 June 2023
- Invited seminar “Into the complexity of dry contacts, where no formalism is permitted” at the French-German-Tunisian winter school “Tribology Today 2023, Monastir, Tunisia (about 25 PhD students), 16-20 October 2023
- Invited seminar “Caractérisation dynamique du doigt pour le rendu de stimuli tactiles vibratoires” at the Journée thématique du GDR TACT, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique - 24 November 2023
- Member of the Editorial Board of Tribology International (Ed. Elsevier).
- Member of the Editorial Board of Mechanics & Industry-Cambridge Journals (EDP Sciences).
- Member of the Editorial Board of Lubricants (MDPI).
- Member of the Editorial Board of Advances in Mechanical Engineering (SAGE), 2014-2019.
- Guest Editor for Tribology International (Ed. Elsevier).
- Guest Editor for Biotribology (Ed. Elsevier).
- Guest Editor for Lubricants (MDPI).
- HIFRATH 2014 Award, obtained for the publication: "COSTaM: vers la Conception d’Outils pour une Stimulation Tactile Maîtrisée", at the Conference HANDICAP 2014, Paris, France (2014).Member of the scientific committee of the Labex (Laboratoire d'exellence) SISE (Science & Ingénierie des Surfaces et Interfaces), 2011-2013, France.
- Co-organizer of the Tactile and Perception minisymposium at the 12th European Solid Mechanics Conference, Lyon, France (7-11 July 2025).
- Co-chair of the scientific theme " Biotribology, biomimetics" 7th World Tribology Congress, WTC 2022, July 10-15, 2022, Lyon, France..
- Track leader of the track " Thermal effects in tribology " at the Tribo-Lyon2013 conference, Lyon, France, (4-6 September 2013).
- Track leader of the track "Tribological issues in the sensitive parts of the human body" at the 38th Leeds-Lyon Symposium on Tribology, Energy and Health, Lyon, France, (6-9 September 2011).
- Session chair at international conferences on dynamics and tribology (ISMA, EUROBRAKE, INTERNOISE, JEF, ACT,...)
- Co-organizer of the « GAMM Young Researchers’ Minisymposium » “Dynamics of mechanical systems with tribological contacts”, at the “GAAM (Society of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics) Annual Meeting 2010”, Karlsruhe, Germany.
- Co-organization of the « Friction Induced Vibrations » special session, at the ISMA 2014 Conference, Leuven, Belgium.
- Member of scientific committees and/or organizing committees of the international congresses USD2009, Leeds-Lyon 2011, Leeds-Lyon 2013, ACT2014, ECOTRIB2015, ACT2017, EURODYN2017, AIMETA2019, LAC-TC2019, AIMETA2019, WTC2022, ACT2025, WTC2026 ....
- Panellist at the ‘final panel discussion’ of the session “Friction-Induced Vibrations” at the 26th Brake Colloquium (SAE international), San Antonio, Texas USA, (2008).
- D. J. DeMichele Scholarship Award, obtained for the publication: Experimental analysis on squeal modal instability, at the IMAC XXV, St Louis, USA (2006).
- Reviewer for the international journals: Journal of Sound and Vibrations (Ed. Elsevier), Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (Ed. Elsevier), Tribology International (Ed. Elsevier) ; Noise Control Engineering Journal (Ed. INCE/USA); International Journal of Vehicle Design (Ed. Inderscience Publishers); Tribology Letters, (Ed. Springer), Wear of Materials, Journal of Bionic Engineering (Ed. Elsevier), International Journal of Mechanical Sciences (Ed. Elsevier), Meccanica (Ed. Springer), International Journal of Solids and Structures (Ed. Elsevier), Journal of Bionic Engineering (Ed. Elsevier), Journal of Engineering Tribology (Sage), Mechanism and Machine Theory (Ed. Elsevier), Noise Control Engineering Journal (INCE-USA), Shock and Vibrations (Hindawi), Journal of Vibration and Acoustics -Transactions of the ASME, … Reviewer for several International congresses.
- Member of the Steering Committee of the Friction Forum.
- Member of the ATM (Association de TriboMecanique) society.
- Board member of the AIT (Associazione Italiana di Tribolgia) society.