Research contracts

Seismic Reflexion Sub Surface (2017 - ).

The Gustave Eiffel University has partnerships with several companies in geophysics to examine high-resolution subsurface issues, including TOTAL, AREVA-Mines, and CEA/DAM. These partnerships focus on different applications, such as civil engineering recognition for the placement of important installations, high-resolution recognition near strategic installations to predict seismic movements, precise geological characterization of the subsurface for the safety of extraction wells, and the high-resolution recognition of underground structures. Conventional geophysical techniques are not sufficient for these applications and do not provide the desired resolution. Seismic reflection allows for relatively high precision in deeper contexts, so it is interesting to explore its applicability to the subsurface level.

Fusion of pointwise geotechnical and spatially-referenced geophysical data for the Inspection of EDF dams (2020-2021).

Simple overlap of results from inspections allows for expert diagnosis of structures. However, a more detailed analysis that offers a joint interpretation of different results is never carried out. Thesis work by Théo Dezert has shown that a fusion approach based on belief theory offers a relevant alternative for combining geotechnical and geophysical information in a more objective, quantitative, and spatially-referenced way. This can be used to optimize the joint contribution of these methods for recognizing structures, identifying potentially anomalous areas, and highlighting conflicts or lack of data. In this project, these methods will be tested with data from several real structures.

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is an existing and internationally recognized field, but it is not well organized at the French national level. The demands of academic partners (INRIA, CEA, ParisTech, LAAS, ...) or industrial partners (SNCF Innovation, Vinci, Sixense ...) converge towards the need for a structuring of the field in France. IFSTTAR, through its work, its COP and its status, is well positioned to do this. IFSTTAR (or the former LCPC) also organized the international conferences EWSHM 2002 and EWSHM 2014. A conference was organized on March 15, 2018. The first meeting was a real success with more than 115 participants (at CEA Saclay) from both the academic and socio-economic worlds. At the end of this day, classified lists of potential actors in SHM were drawn up. Several meetings then took place between leaders to give substance to the structuring process. A new working day on November 15, 2018 at COFREND. The 2nd SHM France day was held at Ifsttar MLV and brought together more than 110 people from the world of END and SHM on March 14, 2019.

Construction and operation of a national research and application network in the field of Geophysical and Geotechnical Information Fusion (2021-2022).

The FusionGeo2 project aims to create a community around the theme of geophysical and geotechnical data fusion, through scientific exchanges, identification of research needs and applications, and collaborations. The project focuses on mathematical approaches to combine geophysical and geotechnical information and create more reliable models of subsurface and infrastructure, with associated degrees of confidence and uncertainty, that aid decision-making for end-users. The targeted application domains include Risk Management, large-scale development projects, Energy and the Environment. The short-term goal is to organize a national scientific day, medium-term goal is to establish bi- or tri-partite collaborations, and long-term goal is to submit collaborative projects and open the network to Europe.

Assistance in the Diagnosis of Structures through the Combination of visible images and Radar (2020-2021).

The project aims to use AI to detect cracks in concrete structures and analyze the internal structure to identify and classify the causes of these disorders, using visible images and radar data, and machine learning techniques. The feasibility will be studied using simulated or real data in known areas, and the tools will be tested on a full structure. The GeoEND lab will contribute by creating the database.

Detection and Georeferencing of Buried Networks (2020-2021).

The ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is one of the most widely used techniques for detecting underground networks. In the FEREC 2018 project call, an innovative multi-antenna frequency-hopping radar-based instrumentation chain was developed that allows for 3D imaging. This acquisition chain allows for the rapid acquisition of large amounts of data. It is difficult to manually process such large data sets. The goal of this project is to develop automatic detection and georeferencing tools to better map underground networks. Machine learning-based models will be developed and evaluated.

This proposal is part of a larger collaborative research project led by Cerema and private company Logiroad, which aims to propose, in the medium term, in the context of the ANR Labcom 2021 project call, the construction of a common laboratory that will aim to design and develop the various software and hardware components required to ultimately create a 3D road data platform.

The Gustave Eiffel University is involved in this project through two laboratories, MAST/LAMES and GERS/GeoEND, for the study and validation of automatic network detection.

A group of radar specialists within the RST, including the National Military Police, the DGCA, the Belgian Road Research Centre, the Wallonia Public Service, and the Catholic University of Louvain, have been working together since 1999. They meet semi-annually and hold workshops. Training sessions are also regularly organized, with the most recent being held from September 14-14, 2017. The group focuses on sharing information, discussing case studies and problems, testing radar equipment on test subjects and sites, standardizing practices, and organizing technical days.

Infrastructure for Energy Transition (2017-2021).

Gustave Eiffel University (ex-IFSTTAR) is supporting the energy transition through various research and expertise activities as part of its "Infrastructure for Energy Transition" (ITE) research project. This project focuses on five main challenges: producing energy more efficiently, producing goods and services more sustainably, using energy more efficiently, valuing energy resources, and assessing the overall impact of these efforts. To meet these challenges, four main research areas have been identified: energy production and storage, infrastructure resilience, energy efficiency and consumption, and territorial organizations. This has led to the organization of an international workshop in 2018, where academic and industrial experts, both public and private, came together to discuss these important issues related to climate change.

Characterization of pavement structure interfaces by frequency hopping radar technique (2019 - 2020).

The CINC-RSF project focuses on characterizing pavement interfaces through the use of high-resolution frequency-hopping radar. It consists of two research axes: one focused on developing new methods to detect delaminations between the first and second layers of pavements and the other on estimating the thickness of the first layer without drilling, particularly those that are very thin. These two axes are transversely executed as follows: signal analysis and supervised learning on sample signals and inversion of radar signals to determine the thickness and dielectric characteristics of pavement layers, and the development of high frequency tools that incorporate multiple antennas to enhance the reliability of radar data processing and inversion. Two experiments will be carried out: one at the Ifsttar fatigue test track and the other at the controlled pavement slab base at Cerema.

Monitoring of pavement layer delamination (2019 - 2020).

Université Gustave Eiffel (ex-IFSTTAR) carried out a research project from 2011 to 2013, monitoring bonding defects between treated pavement layers under controlled traffic via the fatigue test track at the MAST/LAMES laboratory. The project was part of the internal "Fissures" research program led by V. Baltazart. The aim was to assess different non-destructive (ND) monitoring techniques, including 2 radar techniques, 2 ultrasonic techniques, and a deflection meter, in detecting and tracking the expansion and degradation of bonding defects between two pavement layers. A 25-meter section with artificial defects was built on one of the rings of the fatigue test track. At the end of the pavement fatigue program, measurements indicated no surface degradation.

The objective of this study is to continue the controlled degradation of this test zone by adding 300,000 additional fatigue cycles, monitoring the evolution of the defects through ND techniques, primarily radar, until an advanced stage of pavement structure degradation is reached. This study involves three labs from Gustave Eiffel University: MAST/LAMES, COSYS/S2I, and GERS/GeoEND, and has the participation of the company MDS.