Numerical methods and optimization

When wind turbines are assembled on a wind farm, under certain wind conditions they may interact with each other through what is known as the wake effect. When a wind turbine captures the kinetic energy contained in the wind, due to the conservation of energy, the wind flow downstream experiences a decrease in speed and an increase in turbulence. As a result, wind turbines located in this wake see their electricity production fall significantly, while also undergoing increased mechanical fatigue. These wake effects cause annual production losses of as much as 20%.

[ Simulation for the mastery of physical phenomena ] Compared with conventional stirred reactors, microfluidic systems are of great interest for process intensification, combining low reagent requirements with better performance in terms of mass and heat transfer. In this type of micro-reactor, segmented flows in micro-tubes (also known as Taylor flows) have, for example, been successfully tested at IFPEN to intensify the ethylene oligomerization reaction.

[ DIGITALIZATION AND IA - 2/2 ] One of IFPEN's main areas of research concerns processes and catalysts for the production of bio-based fuels. This is reflected in a large number of experimental projects, the results of which generate knowledge that is then harnessed to develop models. However, this modeling requires the acquisition of large sets of experimental data, which are costly in terms of both time and resources.

Contribution to the study of couplings in interfaces, polymers and porous materials The work of Laurent Cangémi relates to the field of modeling and concerns the formulation of multiphysical couplings in materials. It applies to all porous media exposed to the effects of mass transfer, heat, plasticity or damage, such as catalyst supports or natural underground environments.

Economic Analysis of Energy Systems : a large-scale regional approach This research focuses on the economic analysis of large-scale systems, i.e. targets such as the energy systems of regions, countries, territories and major cities or vast metropolitan areas. In terms of the economic analysis, it extends beyond pure, autonomous economic elements to include issues related to geopolitical, technical and environmental aspects, as well as energy policies, obviously.

In urban zones, road traffic is responsible for a high proportion of pollutant emissions, with a significant impact on air quality, which represents a major public health issue. Atmospheric dispersion can be comprehensively taken into account using CFD. However, random uncertainties, of both natural and anthropogenic origin, can affect its predictive capacity. Concerning this prediction, the PhD research was aimed at quantitatively evaluating the impact of uncertain parameters: firstly, meteorological and, secondly, those related to road traffic. To do this, “high-fidelity” simulations of pollution dispersion on a micro-urban scale (neighborhood) were conducted...

IFPEN is a global leader in the development of fossil feedstocks hydrotreatinga for clean fuel production. Processes from the same family now apply to a broader diversity of feedstocks: plastic and tire pyrolysis oil, in the context of chemical recycling, vegetable oils for biofuel production, etc. For these processes themselves to be eco-efficientb, beyond the targeted environmental benefit, their operating conditions need to be optimized by the use of kinetic or hybrid modelsc, as a function of the feedstocks employed and the specifications sought for the target products...

In the energy and chemicals sectors, the conversion of raw materials into finished or semi-finished products is conducted via a succession of processes in dedicated units. Each of these processes comprises input conversion steps and output separation steps. In an industrial context where the focus is on optimizing the use of resources and reducing the environmental footprint, the capacity to redefine and optimize the arrangement of units appeared essential at IFPEN. So its teams developed a tool for the purpose.

Urban road traffic is a significant source of pollutant emissions that impacts air quality. Being able to predict the dispersion of these emissions is of major importance for evaluating real exposure and planning traffic flows. To this end, a PhD research project proposed a modeling chain making it possible to simulate highly turbulent flows on a local urban scale and obtain two-dimensional spatial maps of pollutant concentration...

In the field of wind energy, Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are widely used to gain a better understanding of wind flow within wind farms. On a wind farm scale, they are also used to establish analytical wake models, and are useful for studying the interactions between individual wind turbines as well as with the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL)...