Research topics

Materials have been at the heart of many great technical revolutions and no major industrial development has not been and will not be possible without extensive knowledge in this field. Are materials not featured in humankind’s greatest periods of evolution ? Mastering materials means developing them (the creation of new microstructures or architecture for example, or developing new production methods) and their properties (during both production and usage) in both volume and surface area, in relation to the environment.

Today, processes are being intensified, resources are increasingly difficult to obtain, socio-economic challenges are becoming more acute, environmental constraints are more significant and user requirement specifications are more and more complex meaning that materials research has never been so crucial to development.   

The researchers and research professors working in the MATEIS laboratory have a common desire and that is to combine their skills to handle ‘materials’ projects from the conception phase to final use.  This is achieved by using advanced production processes, in situ and 3D microstructural characterisation on all levels, as well as evaluating performances in relation to the material’s structure and the environment. This integrated approach requires the input of physicists, scientists specialised in mechanics and chemical physicists. It also means handling the volume of the material as well as its surface and surface-environment interactions. The laboratory’s current scientific strategy originates from this requirement and is also the result of recent mergers explained previously, as shown in the following diagram.  

It represents various areas:

• Health (naturally, with the integration of I2B at MATEIS).
• Transport (members of MATEIS have been working on how to produce lighter structures and the durability of materials for some time now),
• Building (for example, the introduction of the EDF-MATEIS ‘MATeB’ common laboratory in energy efficiency for buildings, an activity which has gone from strength to strength in the laboratory).
• Energy (a major concern for materials in the resource, production and storage fields and in the facility safety sector).
   

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