The activities target the study of fundamental mechanisms in flows involving air, blood or mucus flows, and associated with mechanical dysfunctions (cardiac valves, cilia in the lungs, etc.). This research is based on the development of predictive numerical environments in physiologically realistic conditions for health professionals in cardiology and pneumology in order to progress in the understanding of pathologies, to eventually improve the actual treatments of existing pathologies, for example by increasing the durability of valve bioprostheses, guiding future valve replacement strategies by surgery or designing appropriate chemical or mechanical therapeutic actions to improve the evacuation of mucus in the lungs.
1. Blood flows: instabilities related to fluid-structure interaction on the aortic valve with consideration of non-linear tissue behavior (hyperelasticity). Modeling of fatigue and degradation of bioprostheses by statistical models for the analysis and prediction of their lifetime
2. Bronchial mucus flows: physics of collective effects in the cilia of the bronchial epithelium, characterization of hydrodynamic transport mechanisms, modeling and optimization of bronchial clearance by periodic depression waves, consideration of the real rheology of bronchial mucus in models.
3. Development of specific numerical methods in a Boltzmann lattice environment: immersed boundary method, fluid-structure coupling algorithms, deformable porous media, multicomponent and non-Newtonian fluids, couplings with turbulent wall laws and compressible flows.
Main academic collaborations: CHU La Timone (pneumology, cardiac surgery), CINaM (Marseille), IBDM (Marseille), Hôpital Necker (pediatric cardiology), CHU Montpellier, Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné (Nice), Université libre de Bruxelles, LRP (Grenoble), Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec (Canada)
Main industrial partners: Rheonova, Physio-Assist, Ehtris GmbH
Associated research and training structures: Master of Mechanics Fluids & Solids, IMI, CENTURI
Platforms (instrumental or numerical): AMU mesocenter, CFD (labelled technological platform of the Aix-Marseille site.
Ongoing projects ANR SINUMER, CILIA project (Century Institute)
