Offer Description
The work will be conducted at the Pprime Institute, which specializes in the study and simulation of lubrication, in collaboration with LaMCoS—renowned for its expertise in experimental tribology—and LMGC, an expert in simulating contact and wear phenomena using DEM.
In addition to the work conducted at the Pprime Institute, the PhD student will participate in and present his/her work at the Lumiere project progress meetings, which will be held once a semester at one of the project partners' locations.
The PhD student will be based at the Pprime Institute, on the University of Poitiers campus (pprime.fr) at the SP2MI site in Chasseneuil-du-Poitou.
The PhD student must register to the MIMME Doctoral School.
At the CNRS, on the Futuroscope site, the PPRIME Institute is recruiting a PhD student as part of the LUMIERE research project, funded by the ANR and in collaboration with CETIM, to study the macroscopic simulation of mixed lubrication.
1-CONTEXT:
Against the backdrop of reducing energy losses and pursuing eco-efficiency, the "Lumiere" project—within which this thesis is situated—aims to better understand and model the mechanisms governing the mixed lubrication regime, with the goal of more accurately estimating the service life and friction losses of lubricated components. Among the many facets of this problem, the impact of wear particles and their interactions with the lubricant and the surfaces will be the specific focus of study, utilizing in situ observations on dedicated test rigs and the Discrete Element Method (DEM) coupled with a lubrication model. The results will subsequently be integrated into a multi-scale tool enabling component-level simulations. The work will be conducted at the Pprime Institute, which specializes in the study and simulation of lubrication, in collaboration with LaMCoS—renowned for its expertise in experimental tribology—and LMGC, an expert in simulating contact and wear phenomena using DEM.
2-PROGRAM:
The aim is to develop a numerical model capable of simulating mixed lubrication in a full contact. It will be necessary to account for flow between rough surfaces, asperity contact, wear particle detachment, and particle circulation within the contact zone in order to estimate contact performance and service life. The model will be integrated into the MuSST code (Multi-Scale Simulation of Tribology https://tribo-pprime.github.io/MUSST/), which enables multi-scale simulation of flows between rough surfaces.
TASK description:
- Accounting for elastic deformation of the solids and asperity contact. Calculations will be performed using the boundary element method. (6 months)
- Implementation of a debris generation model based on results obtained in other project theses (WP2: Experimental study of mixed lubrication – WP3: Microscopic simulation of mixed lubrication). Criteria at the asperity scale will be proposed to define a macroscopic source term for quantifying debris concentration in the lubricant. (6 months)
- Accounting for debris within the contact: A debris transport law must be implemented to determine debris concentration at every point within the contact, and rheological laws must be proposed to account for the presence of particles in the lubricant film. The transport law will consider wear debris generation, particle entry and exit at the boundaries, and transport by the moving fluid. Mechanical interaction with the walls must also be modeled. (6 months)
- Comparison with experimental data using results from the literature and the WP2 thesis. (6 months)
- Parametric study: This involves varying contact parameters (surface topography: roughness height, correlation length), material properties (elastic modulus, damage law), and loading conditions to identify their impact on contact performance (friction level, wear rate). (6 months)
- Writing the thesis and scientific articles (6 months)
* Deliverables:
- Presentations at project meetings (2–3 times per year)
- Source code in a Git repository + documentation
- Thesis manuscript
3-REQUESTED SKILLS:
The candidate must hold a Master's degree in mechanical engineering or materials science.
Knowledge of coding (Python, C, Fortran) and tribology is desirable.
Where to apply
Website: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UPR3346-NADMAA-171/Default.aspx
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