Cerfacs Enter the world of high performance ...

Abstract

The research activities exposed in this Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches are the results of collaborations either with Cerfacs researchers (permanents, post-docs, PhD and trainees) or people from other laboratories. The main drivers of the activities are the needs for research in the aeronautical and spatial propulsion fields with strong interactions with industries of the sector.

The common points of interest between all the presented research activities are the analysis, understanding and predictions of turbulent flows with heat transfer in propulsion devices. My PhD topic (defended) in 2007 was the integration of a RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) combustion solver in an optimization loop to provide a knowledge-based design system for engineers. Later, my research interests have focused on the use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to solve turbulent flow fields in complex geometries. The interaction with optimization science and RANS simulations was limited to specific actions and comparisons with LES.

Today, my activities are mainly oriented toward the study of turbulent reacting flows and their interaction with solid parts. Multiphysics and multi-components analysis emanating from these topics are done thanks to High Performance Computing (HPC). Indeed, addressing turbulent reactive flow phenomenon in complex geometries is CPU intensive requiring HPC systems to reduce restitution times. The principal investigations concern:

·       turbulent flow fields analyses and wall heat flux predictions with Large Eddy Simulation,

·       conjugate heat transfer methodologies with unsteady flow solvers involving convection, conduction and radiation,

·       coupling methodologies between unsteady flow solvers for multi-components simulations, mainly combustion chamber / turbine interactions,

·       code coupling on massively parallel architectures.

After my PhD, I have conducted my research activities with PhD and post-doctoral students. Their contribution was an essential part of my work. I have now co-directed 11 PhD students, 10 master trainees and 5 post-doctorates. All these studies have led to 36 accepted peer review journal papers (H factor from Web Of Science: 8). This strong interaction with students is a key aspect in my research motivation and the reason why I present an Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches. Based on my background constructed along my career as a researcher, my research perspectives are built on the continuity of present studies, the extension to new fields and opening to new topics mainly centered around LES of turbulent flows in a coupled context.

Jury