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Karst aquifers
Fundamental Research
News 26 May 2023

Karst aquifers: IFPEN launches a research project in hydrogeology

On May 15, 2023, the kick-off meeting for the Karst project took place. This project aims to set up a multi-scale physical modeling framework for karst aquifers. This four-part project, which is backed by an ERC Synergy grant, will improve the modeling and prediction of the behavior of these systems during potentially dangerous extreme meteorological events (droughts and floods), as well as provide a deeper understanding of how they are formed.

Hydrogen-powered trucks
Fundamental Research
News 28 March 2023

Heavy trucks that run on hydrogen: a solution to reduce the carbon footprint of transport?

For transport segments where electrification is complex, such as heavy-duty vehicles (long-haul trucks and off-road vehicles ), hydrogen mobility appears to be a promising alternative to address the challenges of reducing the carbon footprint of the transport sector as a whole. While fuel cells have been the focus of a substantial amount of research in the context of low-carbon mobility, the IC engine using hydrogen as a fuel appears to be equally feasible as an alternative in order to significantly reduce CO2 and pollutant emissions.

Issue 55 of Science@ifpen - Process Design and Modeling
News in brief

Foaming processes
Metal- and ceramic-based solid foams are porous structures that have begun to be used relatively recently in the field of chemical processes although they have been the focus of research at IFPEN for a few years already. Due to their 3D texture, made up of a multitude of juxtaposed spherical cavities (familiar in the field of heterogeneous catalysis), these structures are highly porous (around 70-80%) and have a large specific surface area. On the face of it, this is associated with good external transfer performances...
Issue 55 of Science@ifpen - Process Design and Modeling
News in brief

Modeling manufacturing by precipitation - A skill set for the production of battery cathode materials
Building on knowledge acquired relating to alumina precipitation synthesis for heterogeneous catalyst supports, IFPEN’s teams set about working on pCAM synthesis for Li-ion batteries. These materials are indeed also obtained by precipitation in stirred tank reactors, which shares similarities with alumina synthesis (nucleation, growth and agglomeration phenomena). Nevertheless, they come with their own challenges and, consequently, with new research opportunities...
Issue 54 of Science@ifpen
News in brief

SC7 - Sensitivity analysis of pollutant concentration maps to weather conditions and traffic parameters
Urban road traffic is a significant source of pollutant emissions that impacts air quality. Being able to predict the dispersion of these emissions is of major importance for evaluating real exposure and planning traffic flows. To this end, a PhD research project proposed a modeling chain making it possible to simulate highly turbulent flows on a local urban scale and obtain two-dimensional spatial maps of pollutant concentration...
Issue 54 of Science@ifpen
News in brief

SC3 - Microfluidics supporting preserved injectivity
Injectivity in geological formations has long been an important factor in oil production (enhanced recovery) but it is now just as important in fields related to new energies and the climate (geothermal energy, CO2 storage, etc.). Injectivity losses, which result from the clogging of geological formations, are a recurrent problem associated with the fact that reinjected water often carries a high concentration of organic and mineral elements in suspension, in the form of colloidal particles...
Issue 53 of Science@ifpen
News in brief

Modeling wind turbine wake: a question of atmosphere!
In the wake zone located behind each wind turbine, wind velocity is reduced and turbulence increased. This results in a reduction in the lifespan of machines located downstream as well as a decrease in a windfarm’s overall electricity production. To limit these effects and help optimize the siting of turbines on windfarms, analytical wake models exist in the literature but they incorporate numerous simplifying hypotheses concerning wind turbines and their environment...
Individual page

Guillaume VINAY

Research Project Manager "Multiphysics Modeling of Coupling Phenomenon", PhD research engineer in numerical fluid mechanics
Guillaume Vinay studied at ENSEIRB-MATMECA in Bordeaux before completing a PhD in Numerical Mechanics at Mines ParisTech. Graduating in 2005, he was awarded the thesis prize of the Groupe Français de
Issue 51 of Science@ifpen
News in brief

SC8 - “Massively” accelerated windfarm simulation

In the field of wind energy, Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are widely used to gain a better understanding of wind flow within wind farms. On a wind farm scale, they are also used to establish analytical wake models, and are useful for studying the interactions between individual wind turbines as well as with the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL)...
Issue 51 of Science@ifpen
News in brief

SC1 - New experimental set up to study battery safety

The electrification of mobility is a major transformation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions by the transport sector. In this context, the Li-ion battery is currently the technology employed by all car manufacturers to provide the energy storage required for the roll-out of electric vehicles...
Science@ifpen - Issue 49
News in brief

Wind farm optimization: in the wake of modeling advances
Wind energy accounts for an increasing share of the energy mix thank to the construction of wind farms designed to reduce investment and operating costs. However, within a farm, downstream wind turbines are exposed to the wakes of upstream rotors, leading to a reduction in their production and an increase in their fatigue stresses...
Science@ifpen - Issue 49
News in brief

Coalescence and interfacial property: from the microscopic to the macroscopic
​​​​​​​Numerous IFPEN applications, from liquid-liquid extraction for biofuel production to the flotation process for the separation of microplastics, bring into play interactions between a fluid and the large number of inclusions (bubbles, drops) it contains...