1. Refractories Research at Polytech’Orléans : Design, Corrosion and Thermo- mechanical Modelling

2. Research group : Refractory materials, design and corrosion Head : Jacques POIRIER, Tel. : 33 (0) 2 38 41 70 51, jacques.poirier@univ-orleans.fr Activities Corrosion of refractory materials by gases, metals and liquid oxides at high temperature (between 1200 and 1700°C) - Identification of the chemical reactions - Transport of the liquid phases in the capillary network - Modelling of the thermo chemical mechanisms associated these reactions Evolution of the mineral phases and the glasses at high temperature - Micro-structural observations -Thermodynamic interpretation and kinetic modelling Refractory materials (design, making) for specific applications Experimental facilities : Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray analysis, poresizer measurement, laser granulometry, specific area measurement…. Heating up to 1700°C, simulation of thermal shocks and corrosion equipments High temperature spectroscopies (NMR, EPR, Infrared, Raman, Brillouin) Research Center for Materials at High Temperature (CRMHT - UPR 4212 CNRS) Polytech’Orléans, 8 rue Léonard de Vinci F-45072 Orléans Cedex 2, France Simulation of corrosion of a refractory material by Al 2 O 3 -CaO liquid oxides Microstructures after corrosion

3. Research group : Thermo-mechanical modelling of refractory structures Head: Alain GASSER, Tel. : 33 (0) 2 38 49 49 36, alain.gasser@univ-orleans.fr Objective: to build tools for numerical simulation to design structures with ceramic materials. Principle: construction of simplified equivalent material by multi-scales approach accounting for joint expansion and nonlinear behaviour according to the temperature. Laboratory of Mechanics of Systems and Processes UMR 8106 CNRS – ENSAM – University of Orléans Polytech’Orléans, 8 rue Léonard de Vinci F-45072 Orléans Cedex 2, France Damage simulation of a coal-fired power plant Lead oven modelling (mesh, temperature field, Von Mises stresses in the metallic part) Experimental set up and simulation facilities: tension-compression (10T), Finite Element Software (Abaqus, Castem, Patran/Nastran). Scale of the structure (equivalent material) Scale of the REV Scale of the components Brick Joint

4. Competences and collaboration The development of methods and industrial tools allowing the choice of materials (for a given application) and the numerical analysis of structures with refractory parts. These numerical tools will be powerful only if they take into account the physicochemical and thermo-mechanical material properties. Thermo-mechanical behaviour Numerical simulation Corrosion Evolution of mineral phases Equivalent material   Industrial partners in the following fields: Raw materials, energy, metallurgy (iron and steel industry, foundries), ceramics Thermo-chemical behaviour