Research Area : Multidisciplinary Mechanics

This problem area encompasses a number of emerging fields at the interface between solid mechanics and other disciplines. It pertains to studies, theoretical as well as experimental of solids with complex microstructures, be that granular and polycrystalline  media, carbon nanofiber composites, magneto-rheological elastomers, shape memory alloys, thin film electronic materials or even on the biological side, cells and tissue, just to mention a few such examples. The motivation for the LMS’s research in this area, is the tremendous explosion of technology that drives innovation in areas of sensors, actuators, clean energy and in particular photovoltaics, biocompatible devices and related medical applications. These emerging new technologies require a fundamental understanding of the interactions between mechanical effects (strain and stress) and the thermal,  electro-magnetic, optical, electronic transport and chemo-mechanical properties of these materials and the LMS is a recognized leader at the forefront of research in this area, as evidenced by the recent major grants obtained to work in these topics (ERC MAGNETO, PLATINE and ANR projects)