The team mainly studies hydrodynamic instabilities, turbulence and more generally non-linear phenomena in dissipative systems far from equilibrium. The power required to maintain a dissipative system in a stationary state, the energy transfers between injection and dissipation as well as their fluctuations, are characteristic problems of out-of-equilibrium systems. The team is currently interested in these issues in superfluid turbulence, wave turbulence, or hydrodynamic turbulence, especially when leaving the Kolmogorov regime, and is studying the consequences of these energy transfers on the statistical properties of the system. One energy transformation problem that the team has studied in detail in recent years is the dynamo effect, i.e. the transformation of mechanical work into electromagnetic energy. This has led to consideration of laboratory modelling of astrophysical or geophysical phenomena such as the magnetic fields of planets and stars, and more recently of large-scale atmospheric flow instabilities. The study of magnetohydrodynamics has also led to consider problems involving industrial applications by studying instabilities that can limit the efficiency of an energy conversion process (electromagnetic pumps or instability of the interface between two liquid metals).
The personal webpages of the members of the team can be accessed on the directory.
