The Curiosity team at the Pprime institute wishes to recruit a post-doctoral student as part of a collaboration with the Voies Navigables de France (VNF) and the Laboratory of Mathematics and Applications (LMA) of Poitiers in order to study the navigation in a confined environment with a view to fluid-structure interaction. In addition to a post-doctoral project in progress on a revisit of theoretical work on the effects of hydraulic and undulatory confinement for a river boat interacting with the structure (typically a trapezoidal canal), we now wish to feed the theoretical studies by experiments to screen the models as well as to guide modelers towards the relevant models due to gaps in the understanding of the phenomena as revealed by the analysis of the literature and which the experiments could fill. The work of the theoretical post-doctoral student in support of the future experimental post-doctorate was first bibliographical on the basis of a state of the art provided by VNF of the scientific theories available in the field of waterways. The consortium thus formed between Pprime, the LMA and VNF has since then worked to extend the theories on navigation in confined environments from the literature by removing simplifications and inaccuracies and, by attempting to unify them in a complete theory integrating practical knowledge as well as as engineering type formulations with work in applied mathematics on the calculations of resistance to the progress of the ship to arrive at an analytical formulation of the whole which can serve as an operational basis.
Therefore, we propose a post-doctoral subject combining experiments of fluid-structure interactions in the channels of the Pprime Institute and theoretical/numerical modeling. On the experimental level, the recruited post-doctoral student will characterize the flow regimes around and above a fixed bottom obstacle which does not occupy the entire width of the channel in a central position then eccentric (the analog boat moves closer to the banks) in relation to a free surface canal 3m long with a canal section of rectangular/trapezoidal/triangular/any geometric shape. Then the obstacle will be turned over and fixed on a vertical actuator: a classification of the flows around the obstacle which is first rigid then allowed to pitch and/or pound will be sought. Finally, a scale-up in the 30 m long hull test tank of the PHE platform of the Pprime Institute (environmental hydrodynamics platform: https://pprime.fr/la-recherche/fluides-thermique-combustion/plateforme-hydrodynamique-environnementale-fr/?cn-reloaded=1 ) will be carried out to complicate the situation compared to the model case of the obstacle in a flow (Figure 2). Background obstacles designed by 3D printing with different geometries (continuous and discontinuous, see Figure 2) and aspect ratios will be studied. Model boats with different block coefficients will be used.
