In February, a delegation comprising Franck Morel, director of LAMPA, a laboratory based on the Angers campus, Daniel Bellett, regional representative of AMVALOR, and partners from the company Safran, visited Montreal as part of a partnership development initiative between LAMPA, Safran and theÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal.
Developing research partnerships: a necessity to meet the needs of businesses
This mission to Montreal is part of a strong collaboration that has been ongoing for several years with Safran, a major French industrial and technology group with an international presence in the aerospace and defense sectors, and the development of joint initiatives between LAMPA and theÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal. "We are planning to set up a long-term partnership between our research teams at LAMPA and those at the École Polytechnique de Montréal. Our teams complement each other and our research projects will be built around topics of shared interest," explains Franck Morel, director of LAMPA.
Our partnership will enable us to respond more specifically to the precise needs of companies such as Safran on topics such as fatigue dimensioning of engine parts (turbine blades, vanes) or high-frequency loading, concludes Franck Morel.
The delegation also visited Etienne Pessard, a lecturer and researcher at LAMPA who is currently on CRCT (Leave for Research or Thematic Conversion) by professors Myriam Brochu and Annie Ross at the Vibration Analysis and Materials Mechanics Laboratory of theÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal. Etienne Pessard is conducting research there to develop a new testing method for characterizing materials, a method that is of great interest to Safran. Joint actions to continue his project on vibration fatigue are therefore under consideration. (see October 2019 article).
On this occasion, Mohamed Larbi Sentissi, a student at theÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal, defended his master's thesis in connection with the CRCT of Etienne Pessard, who is the co-director of research and of which Franck Morel was a member of the jury. His thesis focused on the development of an HCF vibration fatigue testing methodology for metals. This theme is currently being reinforced by the hiring in February of a student, Yanis Balit, as a post-doc at theÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal in partnership with Arts et Métiers Safran on "the effect of gradient and surface on the fatigue resistance of metals subjected to vibratory bending."
A long-standing collaboration with Safran
Two theses are currently being written at LAMPA. Since October 2017 Vincent Argoud has been working on his CIFRE thesis on "sensitivity of fatigue limits to microstructure and stress gradients: application to steel gear teeth subjected to thermochemical treatments." And, since July 2019, David Melle, a research engineer in materials mechanics at Safran, has been working on his thesis in parallel with his work on "the impact of the surface integrity of aeronautical parts produced by LBM (Laser Beam Melting) additive manufacturing, whether finished or unfinished, on fatigue life."
Additive manufacturing by laser fusion is a process that enables the production of innovative parts with complex shapes in a single operation from 3D CAD files. The challenge of this process lies in "the quality and reliability of the products, which requires, in particular, control over surface conditions," explains Martine Monin, Head of the Materials Mechanics and Surface Engineering Department.
This visit opens the door to new joint research projects. It illustrates the opportunities for the laboratory to forge international partnerships with the aim of meeting the needs of manufacturers and providing them with solutions to overcome technological barriers...
