2023-05730 - Internship - Non-smooth modeling of rockfall trajectory accounting for block interaction with trees.
Contract type : Internship
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : Internship Research
About the research centre or Inria departmentThe Inria Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes research center groups together almost 600 people in 22 research teams and 7 research support departments.
Staff is present on three campuses in Grenoble, in close collaboration with other research and higher education institutions (University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, INRAE, …), but also with key economic players in the area.
Inria Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes is active in the fields of high-performance computing, verification and embedded systems, modeling of the environment at multiple levels, and data science and artificial intelligence. The center is a top-level scientific institute with an extensive network of international collaborations in Europe and the rest of the world.
ContextTRIPOP is a joint research team of Inria Grenoble Rhône-Alpes and of the Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann and started in January 2018 as a follow up of the BIPOP team. The team is mainly concerned by the modeling, the simulation and the control of nonsmooth dynamical systems. Nonsmooth dynamics concerns the study of the time evolution of systems that are not smooth in the mathematical sense, {em i.e.}, systems that are characterized by a lack of differentiability, either of the mappings in theirs formulations, or of theirs solutions with respect to time. In mechanics, the main instances of nonsmooth dynamical systems are multibody systems with Signorini's unilateral contact, set-valued (Coulomb-like) friction and impacts, or in continuum mechanics, ideal plasticity, fracture or damage. The members of the team have a long experience of nonsmooth dynamics modeling together with the development of simulation software. With the integration of Franck Bourrier as a new research member, a part of the activities of the theme is now focused in rockfall trajectory modeling and natural hazard mitigation.
AssignmentRockfall is one of the most common natural hazards in mountainous regions. The assessment of this hazard, related with block detachment conditions and propagation, is essential for mitigation strategies that include hazard zones determination and protection structures design.
Block trajectory simulation models are routinely used for the quantitative assessment of rockfall hazard. The recent block propagation models explicitly account for the fragment shape, using either regularized Discrete Element Methods (DEM) or on nonsmooth contact dynamics methods. These models currently only integrate the effects of forest in a simplified way . In particular, they do not explictly model the deformation and the breakage of the tree due to the impacts of blocks.
The objective of this internship is to integrate into a block propagation model the response of trees, modelled as elastoplastic deformable beams using the Finite Element Method in the framework of nonsmooth mechanics, to the impact of blocks. The block propagation model, based on Siconos code 3 developed in Tripop team, has already been extensively tested. In addition, the theoretical bases of the model of the trees response to impact have beenset up in two PhD works 1,2 and a Python prototype of the model has already been built.
keywords : Computational Mechanics, Contact and Impact Mechanics, Finite Element Method, Rockfall trajectory, Natural Hazard mitigation.
1 Toe D. (2016) Etude de l'influence des peuplements forestiers de type taillis sur la propagation des blocs rocheux, PhD thesis, UGA. 2 Viano B. (2022) Approche non régulière pour la modélisation des structures élastoplastiques sous impact, PhD thesis, UGA. 3 https: // github.com/siconos/siconos
Main activitiesThe internship will therefore be dedicated to the numerical implementation of the Python prototype into Siconos code after a initial learning phase of detailed understanding of the Python prototype and of Siconos architecture.
Name of the supervisor and co-supervisor :
The candidate should have competences in numerical modeling and mechanics. A subsequent background in software development, in particular in C++, is also mandatory. The candidate also has to be motivated by applied research in collaboration with researchers from different disciplines.
Benefits packageMinimum legal gratification
General InformationTheme/Domain : Numerical schemes and simulations Scientific computing (BAP E)
Town/city : Montbonnot
Inria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.
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