Le tapis de nanotubes de carbone est un matériau intéressant pour des applications telles que les batteries, les piles à combustible ou les interconnexions en microélectronique. L’optimisation de la structure du tapis et de ses performances électriques pour une application donnée, envisageable si les mécanismes de croissance du tapis sont bien compris, est encore imparfaite aujourd’hui. L’équipe du CEA-Tech de Grenoble a modifié son procédé de dépôt CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition en anglais) pour élargir la fenêtre des conditions de croissance et améliorer les performances des tapis de nanotubes en ajoutant des filaments chauds en carbone pour activer la phase gazeuse. Les travaux de cette thèse se sont orientés vers l’évaluation du rôle des filaments sur la croissance des tapis et l’impact qu’ils ont sur les performances électriques. Des méthodes d’analyse et des dispositifs expérimentaux dédiés ont été mis en place, pour pouvoir évaluer rigoureusement l’impact des filaments chauds sur la croissance des nanotubes. La synthèse de tapis de nanotubes de même structure avec et sans assistance des filaments a permis de démontrer que les filaments chauds ne modifiaient pas la cinétique de croissance mais allongeaient considérablement la durée de vie du catalyseur. Des tapis de nanotubes plus longs mais surtout avec une densité de nanotubes plus homogène en profondeur peuvent ainsi être obtenus, améliorant ainsi les performances électriques du tapis. Un modèle combinant propriétés électriques et cinétique de croissance est proposé pour interpréter les résultats / Carbon nanotubes forest have great potential in various electrical applications such as energy storage, microelectronic interconnects or electrical cable. These high-end applications however require control and tuning of the CNT structure and electrical performances which can only be achieved thanks to a good understanding of the growth mechanism. An original implementation of hot filament assisted CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) was developed at CEA-Tech in Grenoble to enlarge process window and improve the synthesis of carbon nanotube forest. This new method relies on the use of a parallel array of carbon hot filaments to activate the gas phase. The work of this thesis focused on the evaluation of the role of carbon filaments on CNT forest growth and electrical properties. Dedicated experimental methods and tools were developed to accurately assess the impact of hot filament assistance during CVD growth. By growing CNT forest of identical structures both with and without filament assistance, it is shown that hot filaments do not modify growth kinetics but drastically increase the catalyst lifetime. Thicker CNT forest with uniform density from top to bottom can thus be synthesized with this method. This translates into CNT forests with improved electrical performances. A model combining electrical properties with growth kinetics is introduced to quantitatively interpret our results

The goal of this thesis is to design a 3D printer type delta. To describe 3D printing technologies used by this printer, basic printer features and commercially available material used at the print and its comparison. To define all hardware components, which are necessary for construction of the 3D printer type delta. To create a proposal and construct an expansion board to which all hardware components of the printer will be connected. To optimize the print space heating and cooling of the printout. To extend the 3D printer with a Web server, which will ensure the network printing possibility.

This experimental study focuses on the links that exist between the mechanical pull-out behaviour of multi-filament yarns embedded in concrete and the impregnation of the yarn by the concrete. To this aim, 5 glass yarns have been embedded in concrete (AR and E glass yarns from assembled or direct roving). A pre-treatment was applied to the yarn before the casting, and was chosen in the following three: wetting, drying or pre-impregnation with a cement slurry. By this way, 15 yarn / pre-treatment combinations were obtained that generate 15 conditions of impregnation of the yarn by the cementitious matrix. In each case, the mechanical properties were determined from a classical pull-out test and the yarns impregnation properties were characterized by two dedicated tests: yarns porosity measurements and along yarn water flow measurements. By studying the relationship between the mechanical behaviour and the physical properties of the impregnated yarns, it is shown that the pre- and post-peak behaviour are mainly connected to the flow rate measured during the water flow measurements, which suggest a specific influence of the connected pores parallel to the filaments and of the penetration depth of the matrix into the yarn. The postpeak and the residual behaviour are moreover linked to the yarn pore volume associated to the disorder induced in the filaments assembly by the penetration of the matrix. The overall result of this work is a contribution to the understanding of the relationship between the impregnation of the yarns and the pull-out behaviour.

During the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, the intracellular cytoskeleton undergoes severe reorganization which allows epithelial cells to transition into a motile mesenchymal phenotype. Among the different cytoskeletal elements, the intermediate filaments keratin (in epithelial cells) and vimentin (in mesenchymal cells) have been demonstrated to be useful and reliable histological markers. In this study, we assess the potential invasiveness of six human breast carcinoma cell lines and two mouse fibroblasts cells lines through single cell migration assays in confinement. We find that the keratin and vimentin networks behave mechanically the same when cells crawl through narrow channels and that vimentin protein expression does not strongly correlate to single cells invasiveness. Instead, we find that what determines successful migration through confining spaces is the ability of cells to mechanically switch from a substrate-dependent stress fibers based contractility to a substrate-independent cortical contractility, which is not linked to their tumor phenotype.

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Additive Manufacturing (AM, 3D printing) has made significant advancements over the past decade and has become a viable alternative to traditional machining techniques. AM offers several advantages over traditional manufacturing techniques including improved geometric freedom, reduction in part lead time, cost savings, enhanced customization, mass reduction, part elimination, and remote production. There are many different AM processes with the most commonly used process being Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). Small satellites have also made significant advancements over the past two decades with the number of missions launched annually increased by orders of magnitude over that time span. Small satellites offer several advantages compared to traditional spacecraft architectures including increased access to space, lower development costs, and disaggregated architectures. On-orbit manufacturing and assembly have become major research and development topics for government and commercial entities seeking the capability to build very large structures in space. AM is well suited on-orbit manufacturing since the process is highly automated, produces little material waste, and allows for a large degree of geometric freedom. This dissertation seeks to address three major research objectives regarding applications of additive manufacturing in space systems: demonstrate the feasibility of 3D printing an ESPA class satellite using FFF, develop a FFF 3D printer that is capable of operating in high vacuum and characterize its performance, and analyze the coupled dynamics between a satellite and a robot arm used for 3D printing in-space. This dissertation presents the design, finite element analysis, dynamic testing, and model correlation of AdditiveSat, an additively manufactured small satellite fabricated using FFF. This dissertation also presents the design, analysis, and test results for a passively cooled FFF 3D printer capable of manufacturing parts out of engineering grade thermoplastics in the vacuum of space. Finally, this dissertation presents a numerical model of a free-flying small satellite with an attached robotic arm assembly to simulate 3D printing structures on-orbit with analysis of the satellite controls required to control the dynamics of the highly coupled system. / Doctor of Philosophy / 3D printing has made significant advancements over the past decade and has become common place in offices, schools, and even the homes of hobbyist. 3D printing has become an alternative to traditional machining techniques, such as machining parts from blocks of material. 3D printing offers several advantages over traditional manufacturing techniques including improved geometry freedom, reduction in part lead time, cost savings, enhanced customization, mass reduction, part elimination, and remote production. There are many different types of 3D printing with the most commonly used process being Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) in which a thermoplastic is melded by a hotend and then extruded through a nozzle to deposited material layer-by-layer onto a printed part. Small satellites have also made significant advancements over the past two decades with the number of missions launched annually greatly increased over that time span. Small satellites offer several advantages compared to traditional spacecraft including increased access to space and lower development costs. On-orbit manufacturing and assembly have become major research and development topics for government and commercial entities seeking the capability to build very large structures in space. This dissertation seeks to address three major research objectives regarding applications of additive manufacturing in space systems: demonstrate the feasibility of 3D printing an ESPA class satellite using FFF, develop a FFF 3D printer that is capable of operating in high vacuum and characterize its performance, and analyze the coupled dynamics between a satellite and a robot arm used for 3D printing in-space. This dissertation presents the design, analysis, and test results of AdditiveSat, a 3D printed small satellite made using FFF. This dissertation also presents the development of a FFF 3D printer capable of operating in the vacuum of space. Finally, this dissertation presents a numerical simulation that models 3D printing structures on-orbit with a small satellite equipped with a robot arm.

Yes / This paper investigates the strength and ductility of concrete confined by Glass/Epoxy ±55° Filament Wound Pipes (GFRP) under axial compression. A total of 24 cylinderical specimens were prepared with expansive and Portland cements, properly compacted and un-compacted for different composite fresh concrete matrix. Test results showed that compressive strength and axial deformation at failure of concrete confined with GFRP tubes increased by an average of 2.85 and 5.57 times these of unconfined concrete, respectively. Macro and micro analyses of GFRP pipes after failure were also investigated. Debonding, whitening, matrix/transfer cracking, delamination and splitting mechanisms were detected at failure, respectively. The experimental results were also employed to assess the reliability of design models available in the literature for confined concrete compressive strength.

Offshore floating wind turbines represent the future of wind energy. However, significant challenges must be overcome before these systems can be widely used. Because of the dynamics of offshore floating wind turbines -- surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch, and yaw -- and the resulting interactions between the rotor and generated wake, the aerodynamic analysis methods and design codes that have found wide use throughout the wind energy industry may be inadequate. Application of these techniques to offshore floating wind turbine aerodynamics may result in off-optimal designs, effectively handicapping these next-generation systems, thereby minimizing their full potential. This dissertation will demonstrate that the aerodynamics of offshore floating wind turbines are sufficiently different from conventional offshore and onshore wind turbines, warranting the use of higher fidelity analysis approaches. It will outline the development and validation of a free vortex wake code, the Wake Induced Dynamics Simulator, or WInDS, which uses a more physically realistic Lagrangian approach to modeling complex rotor-wake interactions. Finally, results from WInDS simulations of various offshore floating wind turbines under different load conditions will be presented. The simulation results indicate that offshore floating wind turbine aerodynamics are more complex than conventional offshore or onshore wind turbines and require higher fidelity analysis approaches to model adequately. Additionally, platform pitching modes appear to drive the most aerodynamically-significant motions, followed by yawing modes. Momentum balance approaches are shown to be unable to accurately model these dynamic systems, and the associated dynamic inflow methods respond to velocity changes at the rotor incorrectly. Future offshore floating wind turbine designs should strive to either minimize platform motions or be complementarily optimized, via higher fidelity aerodynamic analysis techniques, to account for them. It is believed that this dissertation is the first in-depth study of offshore floating wind turbine aerodynamics and the applicability of various analysis methods.

There has been a significant rise of users in the 3D-printer community. A common dilemma amongst users is how to handle spools of plastic filament that does not contain enough filament for an arbitrary print. This report explores the possibility of fusing strands of filament together from two different spools into one spool by the method of fusion bonding. This concept of plastic bonding generally consists of the following three steps. Preparing the surface area, heating the polymer and physically pushing the filament strands on to each other. Fusion bonding proved to be successful for temperatures between 150-190 ◦C without reducing required tensile strength for printing. There was a clear deterioration in the ability to follow tight curves for the fused filament. This showed in the result where many of the welded strands snapped when conducting the bending test. The welded filament had an average diameter of 1.992 mm. It appears that the filament bond formed based on the geometry of the PTFE tube that acted like a mold. It was concluded that the welded filament bond could improve if the used PTFE-tube had a diameter closer to 1.75 mm. Possible improvements were discussed where an example of using PTFE coating could improve the quality of the fuse in terms of strand diameter. / Användningen av 3D-skrivare har ökat markant bland konsumenter. En vanlig situation som uppstår är att kvarvarande filamentrulle inte har tillräckligt med material över för en godtycklig utskrift. Den här rapporten avser att behandla möjligheten att svetsa ihop två olika plasttrådar av filament till en enda tråd och därefter rulla ihop den sammansvetsade plasten till en filamantrulle. Metoden som användes för att utföra svetsningen kallas för fusion bonding. Det finns flera olika varianter av denna metod. För att utföra sammansvetsning med fusion bonding krävs följande tre steg, förberedelse av ytan på den tilltänkta svetsen, upphettning av polymererna och därefter fysiskt röra de upphettade polymererna mot varandra tills kontakt uppstår. Fusion bonding visade sig vara en fungerande metod att sammansvetsa filament med för temperaturer mellan 150-190◦C utan att påverka den nödvändiga styrkan för att klara av en utskrift. Böjtestet påvisade en kraftig försämring av det sammansvetsade materialets förmåga att böja sig. Det visade sig även att medeldiametern vid sammansvetsningen var 1.992 mm. Slutsatsen som drogs av resultatet var att sammansvetsningen formade sig efter PTFE-tuben som agerade som en form åt polymererna. En möjlig förbättring som diskuterades var att använda PTFE-beläggningpå aluminiumblocket för att minska skillnaden i diametern mellan sammansvetsningen och originaldiametern.

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