<p>One of many applications of geohydraulic modelling is assessing the suitability of a site to host a nuclear waste repository. This modelling task is complicated by scale-dependent heterogeneity and coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes. The objective here was to develop methods for (i) upscaling flow and transport in fractured media from detailed-scale data and (ii) accounting for THM-induced effects on regional-scale transport. An example field data set was used for demonstration.</p><p>A systematic framework was developed where equivalent properties of flow, transport, and stress-effects were estimated with discrete fracture network (DFN) modelling, at some block scale, and then transferred to a regional-scale stochastic continuum (SC) model. The selected block scale allowed a continuum approximation of flow, but not of transport. Instead, block-scale transport was quantified by transit time distributions and modelled with a particle random walk method at the regional scale.</p><p>An enhanced SC-upscaling approach was developed to reproduce the DFN flow results more simply. This required: (i) weighting of the input well-test data by their conductivity-dependent test volumes and (ii) conductivity-dependent correlation structure. Interestingly, the best-fitting correlation structure resembled the density function of DFN transmissivities. </p><p>Channelized transport, over distances exceeding the block scale, was modelled with a transport persistence length. A linear relationship was found between this persistence length and the macroscale dispersion coefficient, with a slope equal to a representative mean block-scale dispersion coefficient.</p><p>A method was also developed to combine well-test data and rock-mechanical data in estimating fracture transmissivities, and its application was demonstrated.</p><p>Finally, an overall sequential THM analysis was introduced allowing the estimation of the significance of waste-related thermo-mechanical (TM) effects on regional transport; here TM effects are calculated separately and their impact on fracture transmissivities were incorporated into the hybrid framework. For the particular case, their effects on regional-scale transport were small.</p>

One of many applications of geohydraulic modelling is assessing the suitability of a site to host a nuclear waste repository. This modelling task is complicated by scale-dependent heterogeneity and coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes. The objective here was to develop methods for (i) upscaling flow and transport in fractured media from detailed-scale data and (ii) accounting for THM-induced effects on regional-scale transport. An example field data set was used for demonstration. A systematic framework was developed where equivalent properties of flow, transport, and stress-effects were estimated with discrete fracture network (DFN) modelling, at some block scale, and then transferred to a regional-scale stochastic continuum (SC) model. The selected block scale allowed a continuum approximation of flow, but not of transport. Instead, block-scale transport was quantified by transit time distributions and modelled with a particle random walk method at the regional scale. An enhanced SC-upscaling approach was developed to reproduce the DFN flow results more simply. This required: (i) weighting of the input well-test data by their conductivity-dependent test volumes and (ii) conductivity-dependent correlation structure. Interestingly, the best-fitting correlation structure resembled the density function of DFN transmissivities. Channelized transport, over distances exceeding the block scale, was modelled with a transport persistence length. A linear relationship was found between this persistence length and the macroscale dispersion coefficient, with a slope equal to a representative mean block-scale dispersion coefficient. A method was also developed to combine well-test data and rock-mechanical data in estimating fracture transmissivities, and its application was demonstrated. Finally, an overall sequential THM analysis was introduced allowing the estimation of the significance of waste-related thermo-mechanical (TM) effects on regional transport; here TM effects are calculated separately and their impact on fracture transmissivities were incorporated into the hybrid framework. For the particular case, their effects on regional-scale transport were small.

La microcirculation cérébrale joue un rôle clé dans la physiologie cérébrale. Lors de maladies dégénératives comme celle d’Alzheimer, la détérioration des réseaux microvasculaires (e.g. occlusions et baisse de densité vasculaires) limite l’afflux sanguin vers le cortex. La réduction associée de l’apport en oxygène et nutriments risque de provoquer la mort de neurones. En complément des techniques d’imagerie médicale, la modélisation est un outil précieux pour comprendre l’impact de telles variations structurelles sur l’écoulement sanguin et les transferts de masse. Dans la microcirculation cérébrale, le lit capillaire contient les plus petits vaisseaux (diamètre de 1-10 μm) et présente une structure maillée, au sein du tissu cérébral. C’est le lieu principal des échanges moléculaires entre le sang et les neurones. Le lit capillaire est alimenté et drainé par les arbres artériolaires et veinulaires (diamètre de 10-100 μm). Depuis quelques décennies, les approches “réseau” ont significativement amélioré notre compréhension de l’écoulement sanguin, du transport de masse et des mécanismes de régulation dans la microcirculation cérébrale humaine. Cependant, d’un point de vue numérique, la densité des capillaires limite ces approches à des volumes relativement petits (<100 mm3). Cette contrainte empêche leur application à des échelles cliniques, puisque les techniques d’imagerie médicale permettent d’acquérir des volumes bien plus importants (∼100 cm3), avec une résolution de 1-10 mm. Pour réduire ce coût numérique, nous présentons une approche hybride pour la modélisation de l’écoulement dans laquelle les capillaires sont remplacés par un milieu continu. Cette substitution a du sens puisque le lit capillaire est dense et homogène à partir d’une longueur de coupure de ∼50 μm. Dans ce continuum, l’écoulement est caractérisé par des propriétés effectives (e.g. perméabilité) à l’échelle d’un volume représentatif plus grand. De plus, le continuum est discrétisé par la méthode des volumes finis sur un maillage grossier, ce qui induit un gain numérique important. Les arbres artério- et veinulaires ne peuvent être homogénéisés à cause de leur structure quasi-fractale. Nous appliquons donc une approche “réseau” standard dans les vaisseaux les plus larges. La principale difficulté de l’approche hybride est de développer un modèle de couplage aux points où les vaisseaux artério- et veinulaires sont connectés au continuum. En effet, de forts gradients de pression apparaissent à proximité de ces points, et doivent être homogénéisés proprement à l’échelle du continuum. Ce genre de couplage multi-échelle n’a jamais été introduit dans le contexte de la microcirculation cérébrale. Nous nous inspirons ici du "modèle de puits" développé par Peaceman pour l’ingénierie pétrolière, en utilisant des solutions analytiques du champ des pressions dans le voisinage des points de couplage. Les équations obtenues forment un unique système linéaire à résoudre pour l’ensemble du domaine d’étude. Nous validons l’approche hybride par comparaison avec une approche “réseau” classique, pour des architectures synthétiques simples qui n’impliquent qu’un ou deux couplages, et pour des structures plus complexes qui impliquent des arbres artério- et veinulaires anatomiques avec un grand nombre de couplages. Nous montrons que cette approche est fiable, puisque les erreurs relatives en pression sont faibles (<6 %). Cela ouvre la voie à une complexification du modèle (e.g. hématocrite non uniforme). Dans une perspective de simulations à grande échelle et d’extension au transport de masse, l’approche hybride a été implémentée dans un code C++ conçu pour le calcul haute performance. Ce code a été entièrement parallélisé en utilisant les standards MPI et des librairies spécialisées (e.g. PETSc). Ce travail faisant partie d’un projet plus large impliquant plusieurs collaborateurs, une attention particulière a été portée à l’établissement de stratégies d’implémentation efficaces. / The brain microcirculation plays a key role in cerebral physiology and neuronal activation. In the case of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, severe deterioration of the microvascular networks (e.g. vascular occlusions) limit blood flow, thus oxygen and nutrients supply, to the cortex, eventually resulting in neurons death. In addition to functional neuroimaging, modelling is a valuable tool to investigate the impact of structural variations of the microvasculature on blood flow and mass transfers. In the brain microcirculation, the capillary bed contains the smallest vessels (1-10 μm in diameter) and presents a mesh-like structure embedded in the cerebral tissue. This is the main place of molecular exchange between blood and neurons. The capillary bed is fed and drained by larger arteriolar and venular tree-like vessels (10-100 μm in diameter). For the last decades, standard network approaches have significantly advanced our understanding of blood flow, mass transport and regulation mechanisms in the human brain microcirculation. By averaging flow equations over the vascular cross-sections, such approaches yield a one-dimensional model that involves much fewer variables compared to a full three-dimensional resolution of the flow. However, because of the high density of capillaries, such approaches are still computationally limited to relatively small volumes (<100 mm3). This constraint prevents applications at clinically relevant scales, since standard imaging techniques only yield much larger volumes (∼100 cm3), with a resolution of 1-10 mm3. To get around this computational cost, we present a hybrid approach for blood flow modelling where the capillaries are replaced by a continuous medium. This substitution makes sense since the capillary bed is dense and space-filling over a cut-off length of ∼50 μm. In this continuum, blood flow is characterized by effective properties (e.g. permeability) at the scale of a much larger representative volume. Furthermore, the domain is discretized on a coarse grid using the finite volume method, inducing an important computational gain. The arteriolar and venular trees cannot be homogenized because of their quasi-fractal structure, thus the network approach is used to model blood flow in the larger vessels. The main difficulty of the hybrid approach is to develop a proper coupling model at the points where arteriolar or venular vessels are connected to the continuum. Indeed, high pressure gradients build up at capillary-scale in the vicinity of the coupling points, and must be properly described at the continuum-scale. Such multiscale coupling has never been discussed in the context of brain microcirculation. Taking inspiration from the Peaceman “well model” developed for petroleum engineering, our coupling model relies on to use analytical solutions of the pressure field in the neighbourhood of the coupling points. The resulting equations yield a single linear system to solve for both the network part and the continuum (strong coupling). The accuracy of the hybrid model is evaluated by comparison with a classical network approach, for both very simple synthetic architectures involving no more than two couplings, and more complex ones, with anatomical arteriolar and venular trees displaying a large number of couplings. We show that the present approach is very accurate, since relative pressure errors are lower than 6 %. This lays the goundwork for introducing additional levels of complexity in the future (e.g. non uniform hematocrit). In the perspective of large-scale simulations and extension to mass transport, the hybrid approach has been implemented in a C++ code designed for High Performance Computing. It has been fully parallelized using Message Passing Interface standards and specialized libraries (e.g. PETSc). Since the present work is part of a larger project involving several collaborators, special care has been taken in developing efficient coding strategies.

Mobile devices and mobile computing have made tremendous advances and become ubiquitous in the last few years. As a result, the landscape has become seriously fragmented which brings lots of challenges for the mobile development process. Whilst native approach of mobile development still is the predominant way to develop for a particular mobile platform, recently there is shifting towards cross-platform mobile development as well. In this thesis, a survey of the literature has been performed to see the trends in cross-platform mobile development over the last few years. With the result of the survey, it is argued that the web-based approach and in particular, hybrid approach, of mobile development serves the best for cross-platform development. Using the hybrid approach, a prototype application has also been developed and built into native application for different platforms. This has helped to get a better insight about the domain of cross-platform mobile development and its main advantage of the unification of the development and testing process. The results of this work indicate that even though cross platform tools are not fully matured they show great potential and reduce the cost associated in developing native mobile applications. Cross-platform mobile development is equally suitable for rapid development of high-fidelity prototypes of the mobile application as well as fairly complex, resource intensive mobile applications on its own right. As the upcoming future trends and the evolution of HTML5 continues to redefine the web, allowing its growth as a software platform, there remains great opportunities for cross-platform mobile development and hence provides an attractive alternative for the native mobile development.

Cette thèse se propose de démontrer combien un apprentissage hybride en «Ticéitude» (notion que nous avons inventée) peut être source de progrès, de motivation et d’autonomie et aussi de développer l’autotélisme des professeurs et des apprenants, c’est-à-dire une notion de bien être quand on apprend ou quand on enseigne.L’éducation est en train de prendre un tournent de son histoire grâce au numérique. On voit apparaître de nouvelles approches innovantes un peu partout dans le monde. Le défi est de pouvoir améliorer la qualité des apprentissages. Dans l’enseignement des langues et du FLE en particulier, le défi est de taille car il s’agit à la fois de suivre les curriculum en place et d’inventer de nouvelles approches sans choquer les uns ou effrayer les autres. Le modèle que nous avons mis en place et que nous appelons «Ticéitude» s’inscrit dans le nouveau paradigme de l’apprenance et d’un enseignement des langues humaniste. La «Ticéitude» permet de tisser des liens dans le cadre d’un environnement pédagogique riche et diversifié. Il s’agit d’un modèle socio-constructiviste humaniste qui favorise l’apprentissage collectif ou collaboratif; ainsi renforçant la motivation et l’autonomie des apprenants dans un contexte australien, suivant ainsi les différents curriculum de ce pays. L’approche hybride s’est vite imposée à nous comme un modèle à la fois contemporain mais aussi futuriste car elle permet un apprentissage renforcé, voire accéléré. Nous visons dans une société cognitive du réseautage où on peut apprendre ce qu’on veut, quand on le veut individuellement ou avec les autres. La notion de professeur est en train de changer car nous devenons de plus en plus des «coach» ou des «facilitateurs pédagogiques». Le dispositif que nous avons mis en place permet l’apprentissage quand on a envie de le faire, mais avec le guidage du professeur. Le professeur devient alors un allié! Il guide, il propose, mais aussi il participe avec les apprenants sur le réseau social mis en place au sein du dispositif que nous avons mis en place. Finalement, la «Ticéitude» implique l’utilisation des TICE mais de manière humaniste afin que les outils numériques puissent prendre toute leur valeur dans un environnement durable propice à l’apprentissage du FLE en Australie mais aussi dans le monde entier. / This thesis aims to demonstrate the effective implementation of a hybrid approach for learning French as a second language with the application of “Ticéitude”, a practical new concept for language learning in the 21st Century. This concept is a process of self-progression that targets the development of autonomy in the learner and for self-motivation, while also developing an autotelic personality, which means a certain “well-being” in the process of learning and teaching. Education is evolving due to today’s fast progress in digital technologies and is changing the course of history. Also because of this fast paced progress, we are currently witnessing new innovative approaches almost everywhere around the world. These challenges imply the importance of improving the quality of learning materials that is made available to the general populace. Our model, which is called Ticéitude, is aimed towards a humanistic approach of learning in the paradigm of “apprenance”. The notion of Ticéitude is to create links in a rich and diversified network. It is based on a socio-constructivist model, which encourages collaborative learning; thus reinforcing the motivation and autonomy of learners. In this instance, the model is based on the Australian context following the different curriculum in the various states and territory of this country. A hybrid approach has been put in place to create accelerated learning, based on the process of self-progression that targets the development of autonomy in the learner and for self-motivation, while also encouraging the development of an autotelic personality. In today’s world, we live in a cognitive society of networking when one can learn whenever or wherever he/she wants. The notion of “teacher” is changing as we focus more about coaching than teaching. The platform, which we created, allows individual learning with the guidance of the coach (teacher); thus teachers becoming more like peers. Teachers provide guidance to the students, suggest new approaches and at the same time participate to the network of a “group focused social learning”. Ticéitude implies the utilisation of new technologies but with a humanistic approach; so those tools are used effectively in a sustainable environment aimed to develop French learning not only in Australia but also around the world.

Conjoint analysis is a popular method in consumer preferences research. One of the factors that caused the increasing popularity of this method in recent years is wide use of hierarchical Bayesian models which has been found invaluable in solving the problem of how to obtain reliable estimates of individual preferences without need for overloading respondents with too many conjoint tasks. First goal of my dissertation was to confirm whether the use of Bayesian models is the best choice under all circumstances or whether there are some limitations of this approach. For this purpose I conducted a study based on simulated datasets. Algorithm used enabled generation of datasets that differed in several parameters of interest but which were most comparable in other aspects. Results show that hierarchical models represent choice leading to highest accuracy in predicting respondents' choices in holdout tasks. Use of hierarchical models is most beneficial in the situation of strongly heterogeneous population yet limited amount of available data. In these cases we are able to capture the structure of heterogeneity with significantly lower number of choice task necessary from each respondent. Second goal of the dissertation was to answer the question whether we can increase also the effectiveness of the questioning in conjoint analysis by adding several direct questions. Suggested hybrid choice-based conjoint method (HCBC) combines conjoint analysis tasks with direct questions regarding the preference of levels for each attribute. These are used during the estimation of the model and for increasing the effectiveness if the conjoint analysis tasks design. The HCBC was compared with traditional choice-based conjoint (CBC) and adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) based on practical study involving 421 respondents randomly assigned in one of three test groups. Suggested method has been found as useful alternative that can help with reducing number of choice task needed and as a solution for some situations when diverse importance of the attributes tested does not allow for indirect estimation of preferences with respect to all attributes tested.

Ce travail porte sur l’optimisation robuste des lignes de production au stade de la conception. La conception de telles lignes peut être interprétée comme un problème d’optimisation consistant à rechercher une configuration optimisant des objectifs individuels et à respecter les contraintes technologiques et économiques. Nous considérons deux types de lignes de production : l’assemblage et le transfert. Le premier peut être représenté comme un ensemble de stations ordonnées linéairement où les tâches sont exécutées de manière séquentielle. Le second type de ligne est constitué de machines de transfert comprenant plusieurs têtes multibroches. Toutes les tâches d’une même tête sont exécutées simultanément, tandis que les outils d’une machine fonctionnent en mode séquentiel. Nous décrivons différentes approches permettant de modéliser l’incertitude des données dans les problèmes d’équilibrage de ligne. Notre objectif est d’identifier les approches les mieux adaptées au contexte de la conception. En particulier, l’attention se concentre sur l’approche robuste. Nous proposons un nouveau critère d’optimisation basé sur le rayon de stabilité d’une solution réalisable. Ensuite, des formulations robustes sont présentées pour la conception des lignes d’assemblage et de transfert lorsque le temps de traitement des tâches est sujet à des incertitudes. Nous développons également des méthodes heuristiques dont les résultats sont utilisés pour renforcer les modèles mathématiques. Enfin, une nouvelle méthode de résolution hybride est élaborée pour résoudre différentes variantes des problèmes de maximisation du rayon de stabilité. / This work deals with a robust optimisation of production lines at the design stage. The design of such lines can be interpreted as an optimisation problem that consists in finding a configuration optimising individual objectives and respecting technological and economic constraints. We conside rtwo types of production lines: assembly and transfer lines. The first one can be represented as a set of linearly ordered stations where the tasks are executed sequentially. The second one is composed of transfer machines, including several multispindle heads. All tasks within a single head are executed simultaneously, while tools on a machine work in a sequential mode. We describe different approaches for modelling the uncertainty of data in line balancing problems. Our objective is to identify the approaches that best fit the context of the design. In particular, the attention concentrates on the robust approach. We propose a new optimisation criterion based on the stability radius of a feasible solution. Then, robust formulations are presented for the design of the assembly and transfer lines under variations of task processing times. We also develop heuristic methods whose results are used to improve mathematical models. Finally, a new hybrid resolution method is elaborated to solve different variants of the stability radius maximisation.

Les problématiques de sécurité sont aujourd’hui un facteur différentiateur clé dans le secteur aéronautique. Bien que certains systèmes d’assistance aux hélicoptères existent et qu’une partie de la connaissance associée aux situations d’urgence ait pu être identifiée, reste que les travaux antérieurs se limitent pour la plupart à une autonomie de bas niveau. Ainsi la génération d’un plan de vol sous fortes contraintes de temps représente à ce jour une voie d’exploration nouvelle, et un défi technologique essentiel pour l’hélicoptère de demain. A cet égard, AIRBUS HELICOPTERS accorde un fort intérêt à la conception d’un système décisionnel capable de générer des plans de vols en temps réel. L’enjeu de l’intelligence répartie au travers de systèmes décisionnels distribués constitue un axe de recherche fort, et un des contributeurs clés pour un positionnement leader d’AIRBUS HELICOPTERS sur la thématique sécurité. Aujourd’hui, l’étude des systèmes décisionnels embarqués dans les engins volants constitue un défi majeur pour divers groupes de travail académiques et industriels. En effet, la résolution de ce défi fait appel généralement à différentes compétences afin de maîtriser plusieurs aspects du système recouvrant les domaines d’acquisition, d’analyse et de traitement de données. Et ce dans le but de prendre des décisions en temps-réel en prenant en considération plusieurs paramètres contextuels et environnementaux. Les défis scientifiques à contourner dans la présente thèse s’articulent sur deux axes majeurs. Dans un premier temps, il faut proposer une approche complète pour une planification en temps réel d’un plan de vol d’hélicoptères. Permettant à cette dernière de faire face à d’éventuels événements dynamiques tel que l’apparition de nouveaux obstacles ou un changement de mission. Ensuite, nous nous intéressons à une implantation embarquée de la solution proposée sur une architecture hétérogène haute performance. / Security issues are today a key-differentiator in the aviation sector. Indeed, it comes to ensure the safety of expensive equipments but above all to save human lives. In this context, it is necessary to offer an important level of autonomy to helicopters. Although some studies have been carried out in this area, the dynamic generation of a sequence of maneuvers under hard time constraints in an unknown environment still represents a major challenge for many academic and industrial working groups. AIRBUS HELICOPTERS as a leader of helicopters manufacturing, looks forward to integrate an assistance system for mission re-planning in the next generation of aircrafts.The work conducted in this PhD thesis falls within a collaboration between AIRBUS HELICOPTERS and UNIVERSITE DE VALENCIENNES ET DU HAINAUTCAMBRESIS. One of the main purposes of this work is efficient flight plan generation. Indeed, for intelligent assistant systems we need to generate a new path planning inorder to face emergency events such as an equipment failure or adverse weather conditions. The second major objective of this work is the deployment of mission planning tasks onto a high performance architecture CPU/FPGA in order to meet real-time requirements for the dynamic optimization process. In the present work, we first studied efficient flight plan generation. Indeed, we developed efficient and effective algorithms for helicopter path planning. Then, in order to obtain a real-time system, we resolved the problem of scheduling optimization on a heterogeneous architecture CPU / FPGA by proposing several scheduling methods including exact approaches and heuristics.

L'analyse de fiabilité fait partie intégrante de la conception et du fonctionnement du système, en particulier pour les systèmes exécutant des applications critiques. Des travaux récents ont montré l'intérêt d'utiliser les réseaux bayésiens dans le domaine de la fiabilité, pour modélisation la dégradation d'un système. Les modèles graphiques de durée sont un cas particulier des réseaux bayésiens, qui permettent de s'affranchir de la propriété markovienne des réseaux bayésiens dynamiques. Ils s'adaptent aux systèmes dont le temps de séjour dans chaque état n'est pas nécessairement distribué exponentiellement, comme c'est le cas dans la plupart des applications industrielles. Des travaux antérieurs ont toutefois montré des limitations à ces modèles en terme de capacité de stockage et de temps de calcul, en raison du caractère discret de la variable temps de séjour. Une solution pourrait consister à considérer une variable de durée continue. Selon les avis d'experts, les variables de temps de séjour suivent une distribution de Weibull dans de nombreux systèmes. L'objectif de la thèse est d'intégrer des variables de temps de séjour suivant une distribution de Weibull dans un modèle de durée graphique en proposant une nouvelle approche. Après une présentation des réseaux bayésiens, et plus particulièrement des modèles graphiques de durée et leur limitation, ce rapport s'attache à présenter le nouveau modèle permettant la modélisation du processus de dégradation. Ce nouveau modèle est appelé modèle graphique de durée hybride Weibull. Un algorithme original permettant l'inférence dans un tel réseau a été mis en place. L'étape suivante a été la validation de l'approche. Ne disposant pas de données, il a été nécessaire de simuler des séquences d'états du système. Différentes bases de données ainsi construites ont permis d'apprendre d'un part un modèle graphique de durée, et d'autre part un modèle graphique de durée hybride-Weibull, afin de les comparer, que ce soit en terme de qualité d’apprentissage, de qualité d’inférence, de temps de calcul, et de capacité de stockage / Reliability analysis is an integral part of system design and operation, especially for systems running critical applications. Recent works have shown the interest of using Bayesian Networks in the field of reliability, for modeling the degradation of a system. The Graphical Duration Models are a specific case of Bayesian Networks, which make it possible to overcome the Markovian property of dynamic Bayesian Networks. They adapt to systems whose sojourn-time in each state is not necessarily exponentially distributed, which is the case for most industrial applications. Previous works, however, have shown limitations in these models in terms of storage capacity and computing time, due to the discrete nature of the sojourn time variable. A solution might be to allow the sojourn time variable to be continuous. According to expert opinion, sojourn time variables follow a Weibull distribution in many systems. The goal of this thesis is to integrate sojour time variables following a Weibull distribution in a Graphical Duration Model by proposing a new approach. After a presentation of the Bayesian networks, and more particularly graphical duration models, and their limitations, this report focus on presenting the new model allowing the modeling of the degradation process. This new model is called Weibull Hybrid Graphical Duration Model. An original algorithm allowing inference in such a network has been deployed. Various so built databases allowed to learn on one hand a Graphical Duration Model, and on an other hand a Graphical Duration Model Hybrid - Weibull, in order to compare them, in term of learning quality, of inference quality, of compute time, and of storage space

Social media (SM) is an innovative strategy used to develop new forms of communication channels and platforms. This has led to a positive transformation in the marketing strategy for both small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises. There has been a lot of research conducted on the utilization of SM by Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing. However, the use of SM in Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing has not been explored as much in comparison to B2C marketing. The aim of this study is to understand the role of SM channels in B2B service-based SMEs, while also analyzing the challenges and opportunities incorporated by the integration of the SM platforms and the impact it has on B2B relationships. Our research builds on the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) related “Activities-Resources-Actors (ARA) Model” and the interconnection between the three layers to understand and analyze the utilization of SM.  This study takes a qualitative case study approach to answer the research question formulated in this study by conducting semi-structured interviews. The interviewees included five respondents: two from the focal company and three from their existing business networks. From the findings, three themes were formulated to understand and analyze the data collected: Adoption decision of SM channels in the case SME and the network firm, Collaboration process with the business customers, and Content co-creation. Based on the findings we conclude that SM is an emerging tool for SMEs to incorporate it in their marketing strategy. It can help the firm to improve the bonds between the actors within the organization as well as with their customers and networks. However, the successful utilization of SM in SMEs depends on the commitment of SMEs to incorporate SM tools effectively in their operations. This can be achieved by the “Hybrid approach” by integrating SM communication with the conventional modes of communication for B2B marketing.