Safety is a key concern in the industrial sector. As such, studying risk represents a specialized field of research. Experiments in this area are particularly difficult to carry out, as they involve explosions and complicated measures. Frédéric Heymes, a researcher at IMT Mines Alès who specializes in industrial risk, discusses the unique aspects of this field of research, and new …

We know how to use wind to produce electricity, but large three-bladed turbines do not have their place in urban environments. The start-up Unéole has therefore developed a wind turbine that is suitable for cities, as well as other environments. It also offers a customized assessment of the most efficient energy mix. Clovis Marchetti, a research engineer at Unéole, explains …

Digital twins, digital doubles – what exactly do these terms mean? Raksmey Phan, an engineer at the Mines Saint-Étienne Centre for Biomedical and Health Engineering (CIS)[1], talks to us about the advantages and advances offered by these new tools, as well as the issues involved.   What does a digital twin refer to? Raksmey Phan: If you have a digital, …

Turbulence is a mysterious phenomenon in fluid mechanics. Although it has been observed and studied for centuries, it still holds secrets that physicists and mathematicians strive to unlock. Guillaume Balarac is part of this research community. A researcher at Grenoble INP (at the LEGI Geophysical and Industrial Flows Laboratory), he uses and improves simulations to understand turbulent flows better. His …

Businesses are increasingly turning towards selling the use of their products. This shift in business models affects SMEs and major corporations alike. In practice, this has an impact on all aspects of a company’s organization, from its design chain to developing collaborations, to rolling out new offerings for customers. Xavier Boucher and his colleagues, researchers in industrial systems design and …

A recent winner of a CNRS Bronze medal, Romain Quey is a materials science researcher at the Georges Friedel[1] laboratory at Mines Saint-Étienne. He focuses especially on the deformation of metallic polycrystalline materials. In the following interview for I’MTech, he presents his research, between synchrotron radiation and digital simulation.     Could you define what a polycrystalline material is? Romain …

Article written in partnership with The Conversation. By Stéphanie Tillement and Nicolas Thiolliere, IMT Atlantique. Nuclear energy plays a very important role in France – where 75 % of the country’s electricity is produced using this energy – and raises crucial questions concerning both its role in the future electricity mix and methods for managing the associated radioactive materials and …

Predicting the level of water in rivers or streams can prove to be invaluable in areas with a high risk of flooding or droughts. While traditional models are based primarily on hypotheses about processes, another approach is emerging: artificial neural networks. Anne Johannet, an environmental engineering researcher at IMT Mines Alès, uses this approach. This article is part of our …

Nicolas Thiollière, a researcher in nuclear physics at IMT Atlantique, and his team are assessing various possibilities for the future of France’s nuclear power plants. They seek to answer the following questions: how can the quantity of plutonium in circulation in the nuclear cycle be reduced? What impacts will the choice of fuel — specifically MOx — have on nuclear …