INERIS is an EPCIP (French public research body of an industrial and commercial character), under the aegis of the French Ministry for Ecology.

Located at Verneuil-en-Halatte (Oise), in the Picardy Region (at about 60 km from Paris), INERIS is equipped with physicochemical analysis laboratories and testing and computing facilities that rank among the best in France.

Missions

To carry out or commission studies and research programmes aimed at preventing the risks brought about by economic activities on health, the safety of persons and property and on the environment, and to provide any services intended to facilitate the adaptation of companies with this objective in mind.

Position: One year post doctoral position

Duration: The project is immediately available for one year

Job Description

Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is a method that converts in situ coal into a synthesis gas. The UCG combustion zone develops within and around a cavity that will be partially filled with caved coal rubble and possibly caprock rubble from the roof of the cavity. This zone propagates between injection and production wells. The temperature within the combustion zone can reach several thousand Celsius degrees. Host-coal/rock thermal conductivity affects heat conduction. Permeability, particularly within fracture networks and damaged zones, along with hydrostatic pressure, affects water flows. Hydraulic, thermal and mechanical properties of the hosted rock are strongly affected by high temperature. Such properties of the matrix affect naturally both behaviour and stability of roof materials. Fracture or damage properties will dynamically change as combustion proceeds. All of these effects will interact in a highly dynamic, non-linear manner, influencing the growth of the coal cavity within a heterogeneous host-coal/rock environment. The objective of this research work is to analyse numerically the consequence of UCG on the host rock.

The focus of this work is on the induced thermo-hydro-mechanical forces. Modeling will be made on the basis of accurate description of the mechanical properties of the involved materials. Proper rules for crack or damage initiation will be developed on the basis of fracture mechanics and material nonlinearity.

This research project is performed in the framework of scientific collaboration between INERIS and TOTAL.

Applications are invited for the position of a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Thermo-hydro-mechanic computations in the Ground and Underground division at INERIS institute, close to Paris. The position can begin in March 2012. Applicants should have a Doctoral degree in Computational Geomechanics, Computational Mechanics or Rocks mechanics. Special consideration will be given to applicants with a strong background in either computational multi-physics, computational mechanics or mathematical modeling.

Interested at this role and would like to apply, please send your (i) an up-to-date CV, (ii) research publications in Journals and (iii) names of four referees including the doctoral supervisor to ineris-819599@cvmail.com