Advanced characterization of abradable coating wear phenomena during blade-tip/casing contacts in aircraft engines

In the framework of an international France-Canada project, LEM3 and LAVA plan to develop numerical models that take into account the evolution of the microstructure of coatings (AlSi-PE abradable material) used in low-pressure aircraft engine compressors. The project aim is to understand the influence on the material damage, and in particular the densification microstructure on the severity of the loading on the blade tip. To this end, characterization tests for large ranges of strain rates and temperatures will be carried out at LEM3, Université de Lorraine in France on materials whose porosity will be modified by a controlled compressive load. Based on these results, a constitutive law will be proposed and implemented in numerical models developed at LAVA, Polytechnique Montréal in Canada. The evolution of the blade dynamic response will be investigated to propose optimization criteria for the blade. The experimental work will extend to other types of solicitation (shear and tensile) for the same abradable specimen in order to better represent the real contact conditions between the blade and the turbojet casing. 

Context and objectives

The proposed research has three main objectives: 

1. Accounting for the modified porosity rate (densification) of the material in the existing compression constitutive law. 
2. shear and tensile tests will be performed in order to improve the static and dynamic response of abradable coating under other solicitations.
3. Implementation of the phenomenological laws for compression, tensile or shear solicitations taking into account the porosity rate evolution in the numerical model developed in LAVA.

Work environment

The selected candidate will be part of both LEM3 and LAVA which currently employ several researchers and graduate students working in areas closely related to that of the proposed research. All numerical developments will be made using the Python programming language. The candidate will benefit both from experimental testing facilities at LEM3 and the digital research infrastructure at LAVA (wiki website, gitlab platform, data and computation servers). The candidate will have the opportunity to supervise undergraduate students throughout the duration of the project.  

Funding: Lorraine University

Funding of this research project is ensured by Lorraine University in France in the context of the Lorraine Université d'Excellence program. This program intends to meet some of the major challenges faced at a global scale including: materials, energy, numerical simulations, environmental considerations, health and society issues. Lorraine University is part of a vast collaborative research network including CNRS, INRAe, Inria, INSERM, AgroParisTech Nancy and Georgia-Tech Europe. 

La thèse sera réalisée au sein du laboratoire d'analyse vibratoire et d'acoustique (LAVA) de l'École Polytechnique de Montréal et du laboratoire LEM3 de l'Université de Lorraine. Le LAVA a pour mission d’investiguer des problématiques de bruit et de vibrations dans des secteurs technologiques depointe, notamment dans l’aviation, les transports ferroviaire et routier, la production d’énergie nucléaire et l’équipement d’athlètes professionnels. Nous exploitons des technologies d’avant-garde pour développer des méthodes et des solutions innovantes à des problèmes d’amortissement de structures composites, d’impacts mécaniques, et de réduction de bruit.
 

Le candidat devra avoir une formation de type ingénieur en génie mécanique avec des connaissances significatives en modélisations expérimentale et numérique (la connaissance du langage Python est recommandée). Avoir un master recherche en génie mécanique est également recommandé.