Awardees

This project aims to initiate new Research to understand the anomalous persistence of dense evaporative sprays which are, in nature and artifacts, the rule rather than the exception.

The shape of an interface between two immiscible fluids enables the physico-chemical properties of the interface to be characterized non-intrusively. These properties are key to understanding mass transfer phenomena and biochemical reactions at interfaces. In this project, we propose to study the interfacial properties of a biologically active fluid in the presence of mass transfer and/or stimulated by chemical reactions.

Very few studies have focused on the recovery of mineral fractions (e.g. phosphorus, metals), and the interaction mechanisms between mineral and organic compounds during hydrothermal liquefaction are still unclear. This project aims to understand the behavior of mineral compounds and to describe their distribution between the different phases resulting from hydrothermal liquefaction of residual biomass, with a particular focus on phosphorus (P).

The study of extreme waves is a challenging problem for safety reasons and as an open problem in nonlinear physics. To date, no study in the framework of fully nonlinear governing equations has examined the dynamics of extreme ocean waves in the presence of vertically sheared currents in water of arbitrary depth. The aim of the present work is to address this problem within the framework of mathematical modelling, numerical simulations and experimental studies.

Monitoring skeletal growth in children is essential for early diagnosis and therapeutic follow-up of pediatric bone pathologies. Relevant research topics include the evaluation of the mechanical characterization of bone quality in children, the development of a high-resolution parametric ultrasound modality, and the use of ultrasound stimulation as a therapeutic treatment.

Our goal is to use the 3D-printed long fiber composites AM to develop a demonstrator prototype as tool to understand the mechanical functional consequences of the fibers and other aspects of elongate body morphology in soft swimming robots, and to help develop robotic devices.

Polymers are widely used in industry nowadays. Their processing using supercritical CO2 and more recently their valorization once wasted through sub-critical water liquefication processes are bringing a growing interest as green alternatives processes. These emerging applications require thermodynamics data for non-standard operating conditions (high pressure, high temperature). CALPREPOL aims at developing high precision calorimetric measurements for polymer and sub/supercritical fluid systems.

Le Présage is a restaurant to be built in 2021 at the Château-Gombert Technopole in Marseille. The restaurant will combine a Scheffler solar-concentrating reflector with a low-energy building to provide a pleasant place to eat high-quality, carbon-free food. A collaboration with the IUSTI laboratory has begun to work experimentally (with a prototype) and numerically on optics, improved heat transfer and thermal energy storage.

• Topic supervised by Emilie FRANCESCHINI (LMA) & Laurence BERGOUGNOUX (IUSTI)

Complex fluids are ubiquitous in nature and in industry: biological fluids (blood, mucus), erosion sludge or industrial pastes. From a theoretical point of view, the characterization of these media is confronted firstly to the huge variety of particle size and shape that compose them, and secondly to the coupling between the macroscopic and microscopic scales: the flow is controlled by the spatial distribution of the particles (i.e., the microstructure of the suspension), but the macroscopic flow back-acts and modifies this microstructure. From an experimental point of view, it is crucial to develop tools to investigate the microstructure of concentrated suspensions. The use of optical methods is limited to diluted suspensions or transparent concentrated suspensions (by using an iso-index technique) that are not representative of natural or industrial conditions (...)

• Supervised by Joel MARTHELOT (IUSTI), Cédric BELLIS & Stéphane BOURGEOIS (LMA)

Elastic sheets with mesoscale architecture obtained by folding or cutting have recently drawn considerable interest in the mechanics and engineering community. The cuts and features can be tailored to allow the sheets to morph into complex three dimensional shapes with unusual mechanical characteristics such as auxeticity, deployability and programmable non-linear properties.The main objective of the project is twofold: to identify and build a fundamental understanding of the mechanical response of hyperelastic membranes with architected cut patterns on the one hand and to transfer the resulting tunable mechanisms to prototypes for more reliable compliant medical devices on the other hand (...)