Recruitment

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Team Presentation

The project is led by the I4S research team, a joint initiative between Inria and Université Gustave Eiffel.

Inria is the French national research institute for digital science and technology. As a public research center of scientific excellence, Inria is at the forefront of France’s digital transformation. Its core activities include research in computer science, mathematics, artificial intelligence (AI), software development, innovation in high-impact technological fields, and entrepreneurial risk-taking (DeepTech). Inria ranks 16th worldwide in the “AI Research” ranking and is Europe’s leading exploratory research institute in digital sciences.

Université Gustave Eiffel:
Université Gustave Eiffel is a French experimental, multi-campus university specializing in the study of cities and urbanization processes. It is committed to promoting academic excellence, cutting-edge research, and innovation, while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships with industry stakeholders and civil society. A national leader in sustainable cities, it accounts for one quarter of France’s research in this field. The university benefits from unique experimental platforms and renewed momentum to address the challenges of the city of the future, as well as the economic, environmental, energy, and societal transitions we are facing and will continue to face.

I4S:
The I4S team (Inferences for Structures) specializes in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), i.e., predicting, classifying, locating, and quantifying defects or damage that may occur in civil, electrical, (bio-)mechanical, energy, or aeronautical structures, among others. To achieve this, the team integrates and cross-analyzes diverse data and expertise, including numerical physical simulation, data processing, sensor development, embedded electronics integration, and statistical uncertainty propagation.

General Context

This internship offers the opportunity to contribute to a pioneering Inria Exploratory Action at the interface between fundamental science and technological applications. You will work with a young and dynamic team of full-time researchers to push the boundaries of fluid mechanics.

Earthquakes are unpredictable natural phenomena resulting from plate tectonics and generate surface waves that are particularly destructive to infrastructure. To mitigate these risks, civil engineers have designed structural architectures and mechanical oscillators to damp such vibrations by dissipating vibrational energy, for instance by converting it into thermal energy. These solutions must be tailored to the intensity of seismic events and to the specific characteristics of the infrastructures involved, such as their vulnerability and criticality.

Another major challenge posed by earthquakes is the phenomenon of liquid sloshing in storage tanks. This motion, which induces waves at the free surface of fluids, can lead to severe structural damage. However, existing sloshing models—often simplified as linear mass–spring analogies—become inaccurate at large amplitudes, where nonlinear effects, turbulence, and variations of the liquid–gas interface dominate.

Internship Objectives 

The goal of this internship is to develop ultra-fast, direct numerical simulation models for sloshing. Using particle-based methods with simplified liquid–gas interaction approaches allows for fast, nonlinear, and accurate simulations that go well beyond mass–spring analogies. The proposed internship workflow is as follows:

• Review of the literature and acquisition of subject-specific knowledge;
• Implementation of the new methodology;
• Validation on known benchmark cases;
• Exploration of new cases for tanks under seismic loads;
• Writing and presentation of results.

Depending on progress, further acceleration may be achieved through the introduction of an ad hoc (weak) turbulence model.

This internship serves as a stepping stone toward a PhD (link). The internship will be supervised by Romain NOËL (romain.noel@univ-eiffel.fr) and Christophe DROZ (christophe.droz@inria.fr).

Candidate Profile 

Master’s degree (or engineering degree) in fluid mechanics or physics (particles, statistics, multiphase flows) or in mathematics (numerical analysis, probability, nonlinearity).

Strong autonomy in programming (Matlab, Python, C++, and/or Julia) is required; analytical thinking and good writing skills are expected.

Experience in numerical simulation is a plus.

Applications 

The application and selection process is as follows:

• Submit an application via the Jobin platform (link), mentioning “Parcours 2”;
  all required documents are detailed on the Jobin platform.
• Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis;
• Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an online interview;
• A decision will be communicated within a maximum of two weeks.

Information 

• Duration: 5–6 months (flexible start date)
• Location:
  – Inria Centre at Univ. Rennes, Beaulieu Scientific Campus,
    Av. Général Leclerc, 35042 Rennes, France
  or
  – Université Gustave Eiffel Campus,
    Allée des Ponts et Chaussées, 44340 Bouguenais, France

Keywords 

Seismic engineering, fluid sloshing, Lattice Boltzmann Method, liquid–gas interface, civil engineering
Mots clés
Sismique, ballottement fluide, Lattice Boltzmann Method, interface liquide-gaz, Génie civil

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Hosting institution:

The project is carried out by the I4S (Inference for Structures) research team, which is a joint team between Inria and Gustave Eiffel University.

Inria is the National Research Institute for Digital Science and Technology. This center for scientific excellence is directing the French Digital Programs Agency and is on the frontline of digitalization in Europe while conducting world-class research covering a wide range of disciplines. International and industrial collaborations, ground-breaking research, software development, artificial intelligence, quantum- and cyber technologies (AI) and deep tech startups are the DNA of the institute. Inria ranks 16th worldwide at the AI Research ranking while being the number one European institute for frontier research in digital sciences.

Université Gustave Eiffel is a French experimental, multi-campus university specializing in the study of cities and urbanization processes. It is committed to fostering academic excellence, advancing cutting-edge research, and driving innovation while promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships with industry stakeholders and civil society. As a national leader in sustainable urban development, it contributes to one-quarter of France's research in this field. The university offers unique experimental platforms and leverages new energies to address the challenges of the city of the future, including economic, environmental, energy, and societal transitions.

Context and objectives of the internship:

This internship provides the opportunity to contribute to an Inria Exploratory Action, at the intersection of fundamental science and transformative technological applications, working alongside a young and dynamic team of full-time research scientists, to push the boundaries of metamaterial design. Metamaterials represent a transformative class of engineered structures exhibiting properties unattainable in natural materials. By leveraging intricate subwavelength designs, these materials have enabled advancements in diverse fields, including wave control and energy efficiency. Acoustic metamaterials, in particular, have attracted significant attention for their potential in sound attenuation, vibration control, and advanced noise-cancellation technologies. Similarly, seismic metamaterials hold promise for shielding structures from destructive earthquake waves, paving the way for next-generation civil engineering applications. A key driver of these advancements is the exploration of multi-physical coupling phenomena, where interactions between distinct physical domains (e.g., acoustic, elastic, thermal, and fluidic) result in unprecedented behaviors. Phenomena such as nonlinearities, locally resonant mechanisms, and fluid-structure interactions enable the development of highly tunable metamaterials. These out-of-the-box features open pathways to a wide range of applications, including energy harvesting, medical imaging, and structural health monitoring. By investigating the interplay between bandgaps, nonlinearity, and mulmti-physical coupling, the project seeks to establish a versatile design framework with broad applicability in fields such as wave manipulation, noise control and seismic protection. The recruiting group is developing among the world's most effective wave-based simulation methods for periodic structures under multi-physical and nonlinear conditions. This internship hence offers an opportunity to engage in cutting-edge research within this domain, under the supervision of Dr. Droz and Dr. Noël. The applicant will be trained on state-of-the-art periodic modelling methods, assimilate the literature on wave mechanics, scattering phenomena, and explore the interactions between elastic waves and non-linear sub-systems. As part of an Inria Exploratory Action, this internship is designed as a computational wave mechanics track for a PhD thesis.

Application procedure:

Apply at : recrutement.inria.fr/public/classic/fr/offres/2024-08445

Only applications submitted through this Inria recruitment platform will be considered; email submissions cannot be processed.

Selection process : Applications will be screened on a rolling/weekly basis. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by email for a meeting, either in person or via video conference. This position will be closed as soon as the best candidate is identified.

Required documents :

1) A detailed curriculum vitae.

2) A recent/M1 academic transcript.

3) A short text indicating:

a. This MSc offer ref.: (Track 1: “Computational Wave Mechanics”),

b. Your preferred hosting location (Rennes or Nantes),

c. To help us get to know you better, in 100 words or less, how you would embody the core values of a scientist?

Duration : 5-6 months (flexible starting date)

Team : Inference for Structures (I4S), Inria - UGE.

Location 1 : Centre Inria Univ. Rennes, Beaulieu Scientific Campus. Av. Général Leclerc, 35042 Rennes

Location 2 : Université Gustave Eiffel Campus. All. des Ponts et Chaussées, 44340 Bouguenais

Supervision :

- Christophe Droz (at Rennes), Researcher, Inria (christophe.drozⓐinria.fr)

- Romain Noël (at Nantes), Researcher, UGE (romain.noelⓐuniv-eiffel.fr)

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