Portrait of the month: Élisabeth Lemaire, researcher at INPHYNI

Discover Élisabeth Lemaire's portrait: from complex fluids to concrete applications.

Why should you care?

Who hasn't wondered at breakfast why honey goes from a solid to a semi-liquid state once spread on toast? Or why toothpaste doesn't run until you squeeze the tube?

These phenomena can be explained by the nature of complex fluids, capable of behaving like both solids and liquids. It is precisely this type of behavior that Élisabeth Lemaire, a CNRS researcher at the Institut de Physique de Nice (INPHYNI), has been studying for years.

Her work focuses on suspensions, i.e. fluids containing microscopic solid particles dispersed in a liquid, present in materials such as concrete and paints, or in natural processes such as the flow of blood.
Its research has direct applications in fields such as aeronautics with Ariane Group, but it is also paving the way for innovations in biomedicine, notably in the modelling of blood flows.

How does it work?

As part of the ANR AMARHEO project, Élisabeth and her team are focusing on a phenomenon known as rheofluidification, where the viscosity of a suspension decreases under the effect of a force. Unlike simple fluids such as water, these complex suspensions become more fluid when subjected to mechanical stress.

To understand this mechanism, the team collaborated with chemists and physicists: tailor-made particles were synthesized, their interactions measured with state-of-the-art tools, then integrated into computer models to predict their behavior.

Curious to find out more? Find out more about her career and her educational kit on Science Azur.