Ulf Jakob Flø Aarsnes, Ph.D.

Senior Researcher, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre

I work on modeling, estimation, and control for high-consequence energy systems, with emphasis on drilling dynamics, two-phase flow, and hydrogen-integrated maritime energy systems. My approach combines physics-based reduced-order modeling with robust control and optimization methods for real-time decision support.

Current work centers on project coordination of MARINER and model-based methods that bridge theory with industrial deployment.

NORCE profile · ulfjakob@gmail.com · LinkedIn · Google Scholar

Research Interests

Theory and Methods

Machine learning, control and estimation, optimization, and data science.
Control and estimation of distributed-parameter systems and nonlinear dynamics.
Physics-based reduced-order modeling and data-informed model calibration.
Delay-robust control and observer design for coupled PDE-ODE systems.

Application Domains

Drill-string torsional and axial vibration modeling, monitoring, and mitigation.
Control-oriented two-phase flow models for pressure and well-control applications.
Optimization and extremum-seeking methods for drilling efficiency.
Hydrogen and maritime energy-system integration with model-based operation support.
Energy systems and decision support for operational and industrial settings.

Publications

Journal Papers

[J1] U. J. F. Aarsnes, M. S. Gleditsch, O. M. Aamo, and A. Pavlov, "Modeling and Avoidance of Heave Induced Resonances in Offshore Drilling," SPE Drill. Complet., vol. 29, no.04, pp. 454-464, Dec. 2014.
[J2] U. J. F. Aarsnes and O. M. Aamo, "Linear stability analysis of self-excited vibrations in drilling using an infinite dimensional model," J. Sound Vib., vol. 360, pp. 239-259, Jan. 2016.
[J3] U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Di Meglio, R. Graham, and O. M. Aamo, "A Methodology for Classifying Operating Regimes in Underbalanced Drilling Operations," SPE J., vol. 21, no.02, Apr. 2016.
[J4] A. Ambrus, U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Karimi Vajargah, B. Akbari, E. van Oort, and O. M. Aamo, "Real-Time Estimation of Reservoir Influx Rate and Pore Pressure Using a Simplified Transient Two-Phase Flow Model for Managed Pressure Drilling Operations," J. Nat. Gas Sci. Eng., vol. 32, pp. 439-452, 2016.
[J5] U. J. F. Aarsnes, B. Acikmese, A. Ambrus, and O. M. Aamo, "Robust Controller Design for Automated Kick Handling in Managed Pressure Drilling," J. of Process Control, vol. 47, pp. 46-57, Nov. 2016.
[J6] U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Ambrus, F. Di Meglio, A. Karimi Vajargah, E. van Oort, and O. M. Aamo, "A Simplified Two-Phase Flow Model Using a Quasi-Equilibrium Momentum Balance," Int. J. of Multiph. flow, vol. 83, pp. 77-85, Mar. 2016.
[J7] U. J. F. Aarsnes, T. Flåtten, and O. M. Aamo, "Review of two-phase flow models for control and estimation," Annu. Rev. Control, vol. 42, pp. 50-62, Jul. 2016.
[J8] A. Nikoofard, U. J. F. Aarsnes, T. A. Johansen, and G. O. Kaasa, "State and Parameter Estimation of a Drift-Flux Model for Underbalanced Drilling Operations," IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol., pp. 1-10, 2017.
[J9] T. Pedersen, U. J. F. Aarsnes, and J. M. Godhavn, "Flow and pressure control of underbalanced drilling operations using NMPC," J. of Process Control, 68, 73-85, 2018.
[J10] U. J. F. Aarsnes and R. J. Shor, "Torsional vibrations with bit off bottom: Modeling, characterization and field data validation," J. Pet. Sci. Eng., vol. 163, pp. 712-721, Apr. 2018.
[J11] U. J. F. Aarsnes and N. van de Wouw, "Dynamics of a distributed drill string system: Characteristic parameters and stability maps," J. Sound Vib., vol. 417, pp. 376-412, Mar. 2018.
[J12] J. Auriol, U. J. F. Aarsnes, P. Martin, and F. Di Meglio, "Delay-robust control design for heterodirectional linear coupled hyperbolic PDEs," IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., vol. 63, no. 10, pp. 3551-3557, Sep. 2018.
[J13] U. J. F. Aarsnes and A. Busch, "Transient modeling of one-dimensional solid-liquid flow in conduits," Int. J. of Multiph. flow, 105, pp. 102-111, 2018.
[J14] U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Di Meglio, and R. J. Shor, "Avoiding stick slip vibrations in drilling through startup trajectory design," J. of Process Control, 70, pp. 24-35, 2018.
[J15] U. J. F. Aarsnes and N. van de Wouw, "Axial and torsional self-excited vibrations of a distributed drill-string," J. Sound Vib., vol 444, pp. 127-151, Mar. 2019.
[J16] U. J. F. Aarsnes and N. van de Wouw, "Effect of shock subs on self-excited vibrations in drilling systems," J. Pet. Sci. Eng., vol. 181, p. 106217, Oct. 2019.
[J17] U. J. F. Aarsnes, J. Auriol, F. Di Meglio, and R. J. Shor, "Estimating friction factors while drilling," J. Pet. Sci. Eng., vol. 179, pp. 80-91, Aug. 2019.
[J18] F. Di Meglio, P. Lamare, and U. J. F. Aarsnes, "Robust output feedback stabilization of ODE-PDE-ODE interconnection," Automatica, vol. 119, 2020.
[J19] J. Auriol, R. J. Shor, U. J. F. Aarsnes, and F. Di Meglio, "Closed-loop toolface control with the bit off-bottom," J. of Process Control, 90, 35-45, 2020.
[J20] J. Auriol, U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Di Meglio, R. Shor, "Robust control design of underactuated 2x2 PDE-ODE-PDE systems," IEEE Contrl Syst. Letters, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 469-474, 2020.
[J21] U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Ambrus, F. Di Meglio, L. Gerbaud, "A phenomenological transient model of bit foundering," Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 199, 108299, 2021.
[J22] T. Strecker, U. J. F. Aarsnes, "Boundary Control and Estimation for Underbalanced Drilling With Uncertain Reservoir Parameters," IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 281-294, 2022.
[J23] P. M. Nüsse, A. Ambrus, U. J. F. Aarsnes, O. M. Aamo, "Evaluation of distributed damping subs with active control for stick-slip reduction in drilling," Geoenergy Science and Engineering, vol. 231, Part A, 212255, 2023.
[J24] T. Kringeland, U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Oust, "AI-powered floor plan analysis for feature extraction in automated valuation models," Journal of European Real Estate Research, 18(2), 214-229, 2025.
[J25] U. J. F. Aarsnes, H. Faxvaag, and A. Oust, "Incorporating Large Language Models in Automated Real Estate Valuation," Journal of Real Estate Research, pp. 1-26, 2025.
[J26] J. Shi, U. J. F. Aarsnes, S. Tao, R. Wang, D. Nærheim, and S. Moura, "Health-aware energy management for multiple stack hydrogen fuel cell and battery hybrid systems," Applied Energy, vol. 397, 126257, 2025.
[J27] A. G. Aribowo, U. J. F. Aarsnes, K. Chen, E. Detournay, and N. van de Wouw, "Analysis of a downhole passive regulator in drilling: A distributed parameter modeling approach," Journal of Sound and Vibration, 119300, 2025.

Conference Proceedings

[C1] I. S. Landet, H. Mahdianfar, U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Pavlov, and O. M. Aamo, "Modeling for MPD Operations With Experimental Validation," IADC/SPE Drilling Conference and Exhibition, 2012.
[C2] U. J. F. Aarsnes, O. M. Aamo, and A. Pavlov, "Quantifying Error Introduced by Finite Order Discretization of a Hydraulic Well Model," Australian Control Conference, 2012.
[C3] U. J. F. Aarsnes, O. M. Aamo, E. Hauge, and A. Pavlov, "Limits of Controller Performance in the Heave Disturbance Attenuation Problem," European Control Conference, 2013.
[C4] U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Di Meglio, O. M. Aamo, and G.-O. Kaasa, "Fit-for-Purpose Modeling for Automation of Underbalanced Drilling Operations," SPE/IADC MPD & UBO Conference, 2014.
[C5] F. Di Meglio, D. Bresch-Pietri, and U. J. F. Aarsnes, "An Adaptive Observer for Hyperbolic Systems with Application to Under Balanced Drilling," IFAC World Congress, 2014.
[C6] U. J. F. Aarsnes, H. Mahdianfar, O. M. Aamo and A. Pavlov, "Rejection of Heave-Induced Pressure Oscillations in Managed Pressure Drilling," Colloquium on Nonlinear Dynamics and Control of Deep Drilling Systems, 2014 (Invited).
[C7] U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Di Meglio, S. Evje, and O. M. Aamo, "Control-Oriented Drift-Flux Modeling of Single and Two-Phase Flow for Drilling," ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, 2014.
[C8] F. Di Meglio and U. J. F. Aarsnes, "A distributed parameter systems view of control problems in drilling," IFAC Workshop on Automatic Control in Offshore Oil and Gas Production, 2015.
[C9] A. Nikoofard, U. J. F. Aarsnes, T. A. Johansen and G.-O. Kaasa, "Estimation of States and Parameters of Drift-Flux Model with Unscented Kalman Filter," IFAC Workshop on Automatic Control in Offshore Oil and Gas Production, 2015.
[C10] U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Ambrus, A. Karimi Vajargah, O. M. Aamo, and E. Van Oort, "A Simplified Gas-Liquid Flow Model for Kick Mitigation and Control During Drilling Operations," ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, 2015.
[C11] A. Ambrus, U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Karimi Vajargah and E. van Oort, "A Simplified Transient Multi-Phase Model for Automated Well Control Applications," International Petroleum Technology Conference, 2015.
[C12] U. J. F. Aarsnes, E. Hauge and J.-M. Godhavn, "Mathematical Modeling of Gas in Riser," SPE Deepwater Drilling & Completions Conference, 2016.
[C13] U. J. F. Aarsnes and N. van de Wouw, "Axial and torsional dynamics of a distributed drill string system," European Nonlinear Dynamics Conference, 2017.
[C14] U. J. F. Aarsnes and R. J. Shor, "Stick-slip and torsional friction factors in inclined wellbores," MATEC Web of Conferences, 2018.
[C15] P.-O. Lamare, J. Auriol, F. di Meglio, and U. J. F. Aarsnes, "Robust output regulation of 2x2 hyperbolic systems: Control law and Input-to-State Stability," American Control Conference, 2018.
[C16] U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Meglio, and R. J. Shor, "Benchmarking of Industrial Stick-Slip Mitigation Controllers," IFAC Workshop on Automatic Control in Offshore Oil and Gas Production, 2018.
[C17] R. J. Shor, U. J. F. Aarsnes and F. Di Meglio, "Effects of latency, motor inertia and filtering on stick-slip mitigation control," Colloquium on Nonlinear Dynamics and Control of Deep Drilling Systems, 2018 (Invited).
[C18] F. Di Meglio, U. J. F. Aarsnes, and R. J. Shor, "Advances in control of Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations: opportunities for drilling," Colloquium on Nonlinear Dynamics and Control of Deep Drilling Systems, 2018 (Invited).
[C19] U. J. F. Aarsnes, O. M. Aamo and M. Krstic, "Extremum seeking for real-time optimal drilling control," American Control Conference, 2019.
[C20] U. J. F. Aarsnes, R. Vazquez, F. Di Meglio and M. Krstic, "Delay robust control design of under-actuated PDE-ODE-PDE systems," American Control Conference, 2019.
[C21] P. Pastusek, G. Payette, R. Shor, E. Cayeux, U. J. F. Aarsnes, et al., "Creating Open Source Models, Test Cases, and Data for Oilfield Drilling Challenges," SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition, 2019.
[C22] J. Auriol, U. J. F. Aarsnes and R. Shor, "Self-Tuning Torsional Drilling Model for Real-Time Applications," American Control Conference, 2020.
[C23] J. Auriol, U. J. F. Aarsnes, F. Di Meglio and R. Shor, "Robust control design of underactuated 2x2 PDE-ODE-PDE systems," IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2020.
[C24] A. Ambrus, U. J. F. Aarsnes, E. Cayeux, R. Mihai, "Modeling and Analysis of Non-Rotating Damping Subs for Removing Torsional Vibrations in Drilling," OMAE, 2022.
[C25] A. G. Aribowo, U. J. F. Aarsnes, E. Detournay, N. van de Wouw, N. Reimers, "Performance Analysis of a Downhole Regulator on Rate-Of-Penetration and Drilling Efficiency: An Autonomous Load Management at Bit," SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition, 2023.
[C26] J. Shi, S. Jiang, U. J. F. Aarsnes, D. Nærheim, S. Moura, "Multiple Time Scale Energy Management for a Fuel Cell Ship Propulsion System," European Control Conference, 2024.
[C27] A. Ambrus, J. Mugisha, A. Shchipanov, U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. M. Øverland, "Automated Rate Control to Prevent Induced Fracturing and Fracture Opening Monitored with Step Rate Tests," SPE Europe Energy Conference and Exhibition, 2024.
[C28] A. Aribowo, U. J. F. Aarsnes, K. Chen, E. M. Detournay, N. van de Wouw, "Model-based drilling performance analysis of a downhole regulator," 6th International Colloquium on Nonlinear Dynamics and Control of Deep Drilling Systems, 2024.
[C29] A. Ambrus, U. J. F. Aarsnes, A. Holsaeter, A. Shchipanov, J. Mugisha, "Automated Well Injection-Rate Control Based on On-the-fly Interpretation of Pressure Data," Sixth EAGE Digitalization Conference and Exhibition, 2026.

Talks

2025 Offshore Charging of Wind Park Service Operation Vessels -- Net Present Value Analysis, International Association of Maritime Economists 2025 Conference, NHH, Bergen, Norway, June 2025.
2024 HyValue Workshop, HVL, Bergen, Norway, November 2024. Presentation: slides.
2024 AVM Workshop, NTNU Business School, Trondheim, Norway.
2019 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
2019 Geo-seminar, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
2018 SoCal Control Workshop, UCLA, CA, USA.
2016 Energy, Controls and Applications Lab, UC Berkeley, CA, USA.
2016 Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada.
2015 SPE Managed Pressure Drilling and Well Control Workshop, Rio, Brazil.
2014 SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Trondheim, Norway.
2014 UT Austin Drilling Automation Group, Austin, TX, USA.
2014 Blade Energy Partners, Frisco, TX, USA.
2013 Servomøtet, Trondheim, Norway.

Funding and Project Leadership

MARINER (2026-2030), Principal Investigator and Project Coordinator Horizon Europe Clean Hydrogen Partnership, grant 7,000,000 EUR.
RECIDS MSCA Fellowship (2018-2020), Project Manager Norwegian Research Council and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, grant 3,105,000 NOK.
DigiWells SFI (2020-2021), Work Package Leader Norwegian Research Council and industry partners, WP budget 3,500,000 NOK per year.
Decision Support for Professional Real-Estate Price Estimation (2022-2024), Project Manager Innovation Project for the Industrial Sector (IP-N), grant 9,700,000 NOK (total budget 17,100,000 NOK).
HyEff (2022-2025), Work Package Leader Collaborative and Knowledge-building Project (KSP), grant 12,000,000 NOK (WP budget 2,090,000 NOK).
Ocean Charger (2023-2025), Task Leader Green Platform Initiative with Research Council, Innovation Norway, and Siva, grant 77,000,000 NOK (NORCE budget 6,980,000 NOK).

Code

Torsional drill-string model with side forces: Aarsnes-and-Shor-Torsional-Model.
Axial-torsional drill-string model with bit-rock interaction: AxialTorsionalDrillString.

Experience

NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, Senior Researcher (2018-present) Oslo, Norway.
Solgt.no AS, Head of Research and Development (2021-2024) Oslo, Norway.
MINES ParisTech, MSCA Fellow (2019-2020) Paris, France.
University of California San Diego, MSCA Fellow (2018-2019) La Jolla, CA, USA.
International Research Institute of Stavanger, Postdoctoral Researcher (2016-2017) Oslo, Norway.
MINES ParisTech, Visiting Researcher (2013 and 2016) Paris, France.
Blade Energy Partners, Secondment (2015) Frisco, TX, USA.
The University of Texas at Austin, Visiting Researcher (2014) Austin, TX, USA.
Statoil, Research Internship (2013) Porsgrunn, Norway.

Education and Academic Service

Ph.D. in Engineering Cybernetics, NTNU (2012-2015) Dissertation: Modeling of Two-Phase Flow for Estimation and Control of Drilling Operations.
M.S.E. in Engineering Cybernetics, NTNU (2007-2012) Thesis: Reduced Order Observer Design for Managed Pressure Drilling.
Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley (2010-2011) Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Teaching and supervision Co-supervision of 2 PhD students (2021-2025), co-supervision of 8 M.S.E. students (2013-2025), examiner in Control Engineering and Engineering Cybernetics.
Reviewer, funding agencies Norwegian Research Council, Innovation Project for the Industrial Sector (IP-N), 2022-2025.
Reviewer, journals IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Annual Reviews in Control, Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Journal of Process Control, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, Nonlinear Dynamics, Automatica, Meccanica, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.
Reviewer, conferences IFAC Oilfield, ECC, ASME DSCC, ACC, CDC, OMAE.
Patent United States Provisional Patent Application No. 17/055,825: system and method for estimating distributed static and kinematic friction, torque, and RPM along a drillstring in a wellbore.