SIMaP (the Materials and Processes Science and Engineering Laboratory) has over 230 people, including research scientists and research lecturers, engineers, technicians, administrative staff, PhDs and postdoctoral research workers. All of these physicists, material and fluid mechanics specialists and chemists study the preparation, forming, assembly and properties of materials for structural and functional applications (energy, microelectronics, etc.). They combine experimentation and modelling from atomic level to full process scale, based on experimental preparation and characterisation facilities.
Thanks to an in-depth understanding of transport, reaction, phase-transformation, growth and damage mechanisms, they:
All staff take an active part in developing the uses of materials, as a result of which specifications are becoming increasingly complex. There are many possibilities for functionalisation: at the surface (surface treatment processes), in the bulk or through assembly (multi-materials). There are still numerous hurdles to be overcome in understanding the phenomena that govern fabrication processes and in modelling and simulating these processes as wel as parallel macro- meso- and microscopic phenomena in order to anticipate some of the problems that are liable to occur during industrial production.
The fields studied concern nanosciences and materials for electronics, structural materials, solidification, materials for energy, divided materials, surfaces and interfaces and multiscale modelling. The laboratory is helping to face challenges in the fields of energy, multifunctional materials, nanomaterials and sustainable development.
