Christophe Ancey

EPFL ENAC IIC LHE
GC A1 401 (Bâtiment GC)
Station 18
1015 Lausanne

Expertise

fluid dynamics rheology hydraulics physics of particle transport steep slope flows (avalanches, floods) Risk analysis

Mission

The LHE is a laboratory of environmental fluid mechanics whose research strives toward a better understanding of physical processes in the environment, with particular emphasis on the problems encountered in hydraulics and the study of geophysical flows. The field of research covered within Ancey's team includes the following topics: - Rheology & fluid dynamics of geophysical flow and the resulting hazards, with the objective of modeling natural hazards induced by water such as mudflows and avalanches. - Physics of bed load transport, aiming at better management of sediments in waterways Our major area of interest is the rheology of particle suspensions, mainly the natural suspensions involved in geophysical flows such as avalanches, mudflows, and stream transport of materials. Three major research orientations can be designated 1° Rheology of concentrated suspensions : we are particularly interested in the laws of very concentrated suspension behavior such as granular suspensions, investigating both the problem of determining adapted rheological laws and modeling free surface gravity flows. 2° The inverse problem :very often in rheology, stresses and strains cannot be measured directly; measures must first be taken on the macroscopic scale to then deduce the behavior on the microscopic level. This type of problem is most often within the domain of inverse problems. Our research aims most particularly to propose inverse determination methods either to adjust model coefficients or to deduce the mechanical behavior. 3° Particle entrainment in dilute turbulent suspensions: a major problem in geophysical flows is solid particle entrainment. We are mainly interested in understanding the erosion of a rough particle bed and modeling the phenomenon (Exner equation)

Awards

Harold Jan Schoemaker Award

International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR)

2021

Selected publications

Monte Carlo calibration of avalanches described as Coulomb fluid flows

Ancey, C.
Published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London series A, 2005, in press in

Solving the Couette inverse problem by using a wavelet-vaguelette decomposition

Ancey, C.
Published in Journal of Rheology, 49, 441-460, 2005. in

Towards a conceptual approach to predetermining high-return-period avalanche run-out distances

Meunier, M., and C. Ancey
Published in Journal of Glaciology, 50, 268-278, 2004. in

Estimating bulk rheological properties of flowing snow avalanches from field data

Ancey, C., and M. Meunier
Published in Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, F01004, 2004. in

Powder-snow avalanches: approximation as non-Boussinesq clouds with a Richardson-number-dependent entrainment function

Ancey, C.
Published in Journal of Geophysical Research, 109, F01005, 2004. in

Fluctuations of the solid discharge of gravity-driven particle flows in a turbulent stream,

Boehm, T., C. Ancey, P. Frey, J.-L. Reboud, and C. Duccotet
Published in Physical Review E, 69, 061307, 2004. in

Computing extreme avalanches

Ancey, C., C. Gervasoni, and M. Meunier,
Published in Cold Regions Science and Technology, 39, 161-180, 2004 in

2016 - Publications

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2016 - Workshops, conferences

2015 - Publications

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2015 - Workshops, conferences

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2014 - Publications

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2014 - Workshops, conferences

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2013 - Publications

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2013 - Workshops, conferences

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2012 - Publications

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2012 - Workshops, conferences

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2011

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2010

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2009

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2008

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2007

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Teaching & PhD

PhD Students

Sofi Farazande, Yanan Chen, Michael Josef Kohler, Axel Loïc Giboulot

Past EPFL PhD Students

Steve Cochard, Sébastien Wiederseiner, Martin Rentschler, Nicolas Andreini, François Mettra, Joris Heyman, Belinda Margaret Bates, Kasper van der Vaart, Blaise Etienne Marceau Dhont, Gauthier Rousseau, Daniel Vito Papa, Zhenzhu Meng, Tomás Alfredo Trewhela Palacios, Michael Lukas Kyburz, Tomy Doda, Ivan Pascal, Romain Maxime Dubuis, Christian Mörtl, Mehrdad Kiani Oshtorjani, Clemente Gotelli

Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector

Richard Vonlanthen

Courses

Flood and dam break waves

CIVIL-515

The course provides computational methods for unsteady flow problems such as floods, waves, and dam failures. The emphasis is on the physical understanding of the phenomena, the governing equations (Saint-Venant equations) and aspects related to engineering practice.

Fluids mechanics (For GC)

CIVIL-210

This course is an introduction to fluid mechanics. Physical properties of fluids and the conservation principles (mass and momentum) are presented. The second part of the course is devoted to applications to open-channel hydraulics and pipeline flows.

Hydrological risks and structures

ENV-524

The course is an introduction to statistical hydrology with a focus on the hydrology of small mountain watersheds. The course includes a general introduction to risk management. It then introduces the student to extreme value theory and hydrological models.

Similarity and Transport Phenomena in Fluid

ME-716

The course is an introduction to symmetry analysis in fluid mechanics. The student will learn how to find similarity and travelling-wave solutions to partial differential equations used in fluid and continuum mechanics. The course covers mathematical and physical aspects