Section: Overall Objectives

Introduction

The propagation of waves is one of the most common physical phenomena one can meet in nature. From the human scale (sounds, vibrations, water waves, telecommunications, radar) and to the scale of the universe (electromagnetic waves, gravity waves), to the scale of the atom (spontaneous or stimulated emission, interferences between particles), the emission and the reception of waves are our privileged way to understand the world that surrounds us.

The study and the simulation of wave propagation phenomena constitute a very broad and active field of research in the various domains of physics and engineering science.

The variety and the complexity of the underlying problems, their scientific and industrial interest, the existence of a common mathematical structure to these problems from different areas justify together a research project in Scientific Computing entirely devoted to this theme.

The project POEMS is an UMR (Unité Mixte de Recherche) between CNRS, ENSTA and Inria (UMR 7231). The general activity of the project is oriented toward the conception, the analysis, the numerical approximation, and the control of mathematical models for the description of wave propagation in mechanics, physics, and engineering sciences.

Beyond the general objective of contributing to the progress of the scientific knowledge, four goals can be ascribed to the project:

• the development of an expertise relative to various types of waves (acoustic, elastic, electromagnetic, gravity waves, ...) and in particular for their numerical simulation,

• the treatment of complex problems whose simulation is close enough to real life situations and industrial applications,

• the development of original mathematical and numerical techniques,

• the development of computational codes, in particular in collaboration with external partners (scientists from other disciplines, industry, state companies...)