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ALBOUSSIERE Thierry

  • Grade/Status : Directeur de Recherche - CNRS
  • Institution : UCB Lyon
  • Building : GEODE
  • Floor : 4
  • Office : 408/410
  • Phone : 33 (0)4 72 44 83 98
  • E-mail : thierry.alboussiere at ens-lyon.fr
  • URL : http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/thierry.alboussiere/

    Research topic(s)

  • géodynamo
  • dynamique du noyau liquide
  • dynamique et structure de la graine
  • cristallisation des noyaux planétaires
  • My research interests are covering different aspects of planetary dynamics: the dynamo effect in the Earth's core, dynamics and thermodynamics of the inner core, of the early mantle and compressible convection. Using analogue experiments and numerical modelling, I have been studying crystallization processes in the dendritic regime, with applications to the crystallization of the inner core (PhD of Ludovic Huguet, collaboration with Michael Bergman). In particular, with Renaud Deguen, we have identified a mechanism of convective translation of the inner core, as a result of the interaction between phase change, heat transfer in the outer core, convection in the inner core and self-gravitational equilibrium. We are working on a similar dynamics for the early mantle crystallization with Stephane Labrosse and Adrien Morison. More recently, my research has been focused essentially on compressible effects in convection. With Remi Menaut (PhD), we are investigating experimental compressible effects in a centrifuge. Increased gravity is also accompanied by Coriolis effects (PhD of Yoann Corre). I am also interested in theoretical aspects of compressible convection: with Yanick Ricard, we have analyzed different equivalent expressions for the viscous dissipation and we have performed a comprehensive stability analysis of compressible convection, valid for any physically sound equation of state. With Stephane Labrosse, Yanick Ricard and Jezabel Curbelo (Spanish collaboration), we are analyzing numerical compressible convection with different approximation levels, from an "exact model" (Navier-Stokes, equation of state, entropy equation) to a Boussinesq solution, with intermediate anelastic models.