Research interests

• Novel miniature ultrasonic surgical device design
• Ultrasonically assisted machining and manufacturing
• New generation of piezoelectric materials
• Power ultrasonic technology for space exploration
• Nonlinear dynamics and control

Current research

Xuan’s background is in vibration analysis and control system design, and his main research area is high power ultrasonics with a resonant frequency from 20 kHz to 100 kHz powered from a few watts to kilowatts. He has led research in a range of applications using power ultrasonic technology, such as laser ultrasonic assisted machining and manufacturing for aerospace alloys, ultrasonic percussive drill tool design for low gravitational space exploration, and minimally invasive surgeries enabled by ultrasonics and surgical robots.

Xuan is interested in innovative design of miniature ultrasonic surgical devices, such as using flextensional configuration and embedding metamaterial structures in the ultrasonic transducer, and then integration with surgical robot for minimally invasive surgeries. He has developed a number of design solutions that demonstrate capabilities to achieve stable and large amplitude of the blade, which have great potential to improve surgical outcomes. Xuan also investigates new generation piezoelectric materials, such as single crystal material (promote energy density of miniature ultrasonic transducers), lead free material (removal of toxic substance for better healthcare), and textured material (adopting advantages of both hard piezoelectric material and single crystal material). These above proposed miniature ultrasonic transducer designs can also be used for other applications, such as energy harvesting and ultrasonic actuators.

Xuan is also planning to look at applying power ultrasonics to other emerging manufacturing technologies, including additive manufacturing to improve the build-quality, which can be particularly beneficial for complex geometries parts where conventional technology struggles; and robotic machining for various sizes engineering components to increase the overall surface integrity.

Xuan is involved in Active Control of Sound and Vibration module at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) – ISVR6139.

Xuan received BSc degree of mechanical engineering and applied electronics from Beijing University of Technology between 2002 to 2006. He then pursuit MSc degree at the Delft Center for Systems and Control (DCSC) at Technische Universiteit Delft (TUDelft) from 2006 to 2008, where he focused on the modelling and control system development for vibration suppression and noise reduction of car engine. After that, he worked as a control systems engineer in oil&gas industry from 2008 to 2010, where he led control system design for pipelaying vessels motion stabilisation in the North Sea. He returned to academia in 2010 to study PhD at Loughborough University on the design and implementation of an autoresonance control system for ultrasonically assisted drilling applications.

He moved to University of Glasgow in 2014, continuing research on high power ultrasonics to work on an EU funded FP7 project on an ultrasonic percussive drill tool design for rock core sampling on Mars, and the optimised drill tool was successfully tested at Antarctic field trials. Xuan started research in surgical applications of power ultrasonics in 2016, on a project funded by Stryker for miniaturisation of ultrasonic surgical devices for minimally invasive spinal surgeries. In 2018, he joined the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) at University of Sheffield to work on a project focused on employing high power ultrasonics with laser in machining the next generation aerospace materials, which was in collaboration with Loughborough University and University of Manchester. He led the high temperature and strain rate experiments on metal matrix composite material using Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar. He returned to University of Glasgow in 2019 to take up a Research Fellow role on a 5-year EPSRC funded over £6m programme grant - UltraSurge (Surgery enabled by Ultrasonics), which looks into a series of interrelated themes around the effect of ultrasound on tissue, miniaturisation of ultrasound transducers, and using external robots to direct ultrasound tipped robot tentacles to the surgery site within the body. Xuan led the design of miniaturised ultrasonic surgical devices for hard tissue resection. He invented an innovative structure based on flextensional configuration, transforming small amplitude of the piezoelectric material to large amplitude at the blade, with cutting efficiency similar to the commercial large size ultrasonic orthopaedic devices. He successfully integrated the miniature ultrasonic bone scalpel with KUKA surgical robot for demonstration of in-vitro bone cutting process. Xuan is currently looking at pushing the boundaries of the design of miniaturised surgical device and seeking for commercialisation opportunities.