Solid Mechanics Laboratory

The general objective of the laboratory is to propose, build, analyze and validate experimentally and numerically thermodynamically consistent models making it possible to meet major scientific and technical challenges. In particular, the laboratory aims to be a major player in the design, manufacture, calculation and reliability analysis of heterogeneous, micro- or nano-structured media and materials, thin layers and nano-objects, or biological tissues. Its objective is to study and understand on various scales the aspects of manufacturing and long-term mechanical behavior of these objects, aspects which are increasingly strongly linked. The laboratory is immersed in a very dynamic environment with its international rise and the institutional developments of the Saclay plateau.

The first priority is to be able to attract and recruit a creative, enterprising and high-potential team, at the level of researchers, teaching researchers, research engineers, technicians, post-doctoral students and doctoral students.

A second priority is the experimental support of research on different scales of space and time on active materials, microarchitectures, or biological. It requires the development and fine-tuning of complex tests, most often in situ with loads of different but simultaneous physical nature, with real-time observations and an analysis of deformations by imagery at increasingly fine scales. The development of the experimental park is carried out in own action and in cooperation.

The laboratory participates with its partners in various characterization and observation platforms: in-situ micromechanical characterization within the framework of the Matmeca team at Paris Saclay, tests of nano objects under environment within the framework of the PLATINUM platform built and operated in joint with the LPICM CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique and the IFSSTAR, the observation and characterization of nanometric systems within the framework of the Interdisciplinary Center for Electronic Microscopy of X (CIMEX) etc.

The laboratory is an active player in additive manufacturing platforms and networks. For metallic materials, he participates in: X-ENSTA Additive Manufacturing Center built around a CLAD machine as part of a project supported by the DGA, in the SLM machine of LURPA ENS Paris-Saclay, on the Manufacturing initiative Additive of the Saclay Plateau. For polymeric materials, it has equipped itself with a multi-material polymer printer for the study and manufacture of flexible and active microarchitectured materials as part of the ERC MAGNETO. He is investing in photolithography printing techniques with a FEMTIKA machine, the installation of which is scheduled for the end of 2019.

In its own action, the laboratory has enriched its experimental park for polymer materials within the framework of the Arkema chair started in 2020. In addition, the laboratory wants to remain present, with its machines dedicated to dynamic tests, on the characterization of materials and structures, in particular those from additive manufacturing. He is also present on the storage aspects in geomaterials with the study of very long term behavior and low load.

The laboratory's research is based on high performance numerical calculations currently performed on an aging cluster.

The will of the laboratory is to become from 2020 an active partner in the new X-based calculation center and to transfer the calculation activities there in 2020. This change will make it possible to increase computing power, but also to take advantage of the logistical support for this platform being created.

The strategic project proposed for the next contract takes up and declines these axes based on a strong development of experimental and calculation activities.