Post-Doctoral researcher in Pneumatic Conveying of Powder- CDD 13 mois

Joining Mines Saint-Étienne means committing to an institution where science and innovation build a more sustainable future. It is a school of excellence where everyone has the opportunity to unlock their full potential and contribute to tackling the challenges of tomorrow.

Ranked among the top engineering schools in France and recognized worldwide, our school, a member of the Institut Mines-Télécom, educates the talents of tomorrow while actively addressing major industrial, digital, and environmental challenges. By joining us, you become part of a community of 500 members of staff, 2,500 students and take part in an ambitious project: combining academic excellence, cutting-edge research, and positive societal impact.

The Institut Mines-Télécom brings together France’s leading Grandes Ecoles to tackle major industrial, digital, energy, and environmental challenges. With its eight public Grandes Écoles and two affiliated Graduate Schools, it is the leading public institute dedicated to engineers and managers. Together, we imagine and build a sustainable future by educating the leaders who will shape tomorrow’s transitions.

🎯 What we expect from you

As Postdoctoral Researcher, you will be at the heart of our missions in education, research, and innovation, assigned to the (UMR5703) LGF / SPIN research Center. Within this centre, you will combine your passion for science and for societal impact with one of our industrial partner ORANO.

The SPIN Chemical Engineering research center develops its research activities in the field of Chemical Engineering applied to dispersed systems : grains, particles, drops, bubbles, porous media… Most of its staff belongs to the CNRS joint research units George Friedel Laboratory UMR 5307 and Environment, City and Society Laboratory UMR 5600. Currently, more than 80 employees and students are working at the SPIN Centre in a stimulating interdisciplinary research environment. Numerous collaborations are established with research groups worldwide as well as with SMEs or major industrial companies.

The position will take part in a collaborative research activities with our industrial partner ORANO which is a recognized international leading operator in the field of nuclear materials. ORANO delivers solutions to address present and future global energy and health challenges. Its expertise and mastery of cutting-edge technologies enable ORANO to offer its customers high value-added products and services throughout the entire fuel cycle. Our two groups are joining their efforts to understand field observations in a pneumatic transport line. We are recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to undertake a collaborative research project to better understand the physical processes involved.

Granular material is a specific state of the matter failing to be described by usual behavior laws usually applied to fluids or solids. However in a vast majority of examples, manufactured equipment require the handling and processing of particulate material. Such a state of matter is formed by a collection of a large number of individual solid particles. Individually these particles are successfully described with conventional physical laws. However a complexity emerges from the large number of particles involved which produces unexpected behavior visible in nature as well as on manufacturing lines.

Among the various powders and grains processing operations used in the industry, pneumatic conveying is a very common technical option for transport over distances ranging from 1cm to 100m. Its relatively low cost and flexibility explains its use, despite the complex interaction between the imposed gas flow dragging along the granular phase. A large variety of transport regimes are indeed accessible depending on the imposed gas flow rate, the granular material properties and its transport rate.

In particular the interactions between the wall material forming the conveying line and its geometry or inclination is poorly studied and may explain some of the observed performance fluctuations. Moreover, a better understanding of the wall-particle interaction on the granular conveying physics may open opportunities for future developments in the field of powder technologies.

Under the responsibility of Guillaume Dumazer and Olivier Bonnefoy, in collaboration with our industrial partner, the following tasks will be approached and fulfilled :

· The applicant will undertake series of experimental and theoretical research actions in order to explore field observations reported by our partner. A scientific literature survey will be required in order to provide an up-to-date overview of the topic, suggesting state-of-the-art observation methods. A review of interfacial mechanisms studied and reported by the scientific community in various granular flow experiments is expected.

· The applicant will also support our industrial partner in collecting field data and improving existing pneumatic transport monitoring or event suggesting and implementing new measurement setups.

· By bringing together observation data and existing or developed models, the applicant will have to contribute to the scientific production of Mines Saint-Etienne together with the development of its own scientist profile.

Regular reports and meetings with the current research project partners are expected. Your ability to work in a project-based environment and to create links between teaching, research, and practical applications will be essential for success.