Research project "Odyssey of materials in extreme fire"

One of the objectives is to develop materials and material assemblies with low flammability, protecting various substrates and limiting the spread of fire. It will also be a question of understanding the effects of microgravity on the fire behavior of FR polymers in addition to high heat fluxes.

His work is a continuation of the “FireBar-Concept” project for which Professor Bourbigot obtained a grant from the ERC (European Research Council) in 2015 and which aimed to develop materials and assemblies of materials with low flammability, protecting substrates and limiting the spread of fire.

From UMET to IUF: 30 years of research devoted to increasing the fire resistance of materials

Serge Bourbigot's work on fire and the resistance of materials has been a benchmark for many years. His appointment to the IUF in October 2020 distinguishes the scientific and academic excellence of his research activities in chemistry and materials.

With the 15 researchers of his team (lecturer-researchers, researchers, engineers, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows), he focuses his current work on the resistance and reaction to fire of polymer materials, his desire being to develop new materials that do not exist. 'not ignite under stress and develop the flame retardant properties of existing materials. He also works on modeling the behavior of materials and fire in an aggressive and complex environment, and on developing original characterization and measurement methods. Its work revolves around two axes: (i) Processes for the development of additive materials and coatings (synergy and formulation, reactive extrusion, nanocomposite, spectrochemistry) and (ii) Similarity and modeling (downscaling and dimensional analysis, kinetic analysis, pyrolysis model).

To do this, Professor Bourbigot exploits the potential offered by new digital simulation techniques which allow us to grasp the limits of certain ideas and explore other fields of investigation. By conceptualizing fire protection through digital assemblies and simulation, he can define and optimize new multi-material designs. It addresses similarity aspects to create scaled-down 'fire' scenarios. This gives it great flexibility in its experiments and speed in the development of new high-performance materials.

Three areas more particularly invested in 2021

In terms of fields of application, Serge Bourbigot and his team are working on:

• the nuclear sector - for example, to contribute to the longevity of power plants, which requires the installation of specific systems and equipment based on materials suitable for fire (fire dampers, cat flaps, cables, etc.);
• electric batteries such as those installed in cars or airplanes and which require specific protection to prevent or delay the outbreak of fire in the event of a fire catch;
• confined environments where thermal loads grow very quickly and have a very large radius of action, on specific sites such as oil platforms or refineries where fire spreads in the form of jets, or even in microgravity spaces such as within rockets and the international space station.

On this point, a multi-partnership project is underway, mobilizing teams from Centrale Lille, Sorbonne University and Aix-Marseille University. Registered with the CNES, it looks at how flame-retarded polymers acting in gas phase (release of phosphorus free radicals) or in condensed phase (physical and chemical intumescence phenomena) behave.

A graduate of ENSCL (class of 1990), Serge Bourbigot holds a doctorate in spectrochemistry, and has been authorized to supervise research since 1993. Lecturer at ENSCL from 1995 to 1999, he became a university professor in 1999 and joined ENSAIT from 1999 to 2003, before returning to ENSCL in 2003 and since 2020 at Centrale Lille.

Attached to UMET (Materials and Transformation Unit, CNRS UMR 8207), he is responsible for the research axis dedicated to the engineering of polymer systems and leads the team on the reaction and fire resistance of materials.

He participated in the filing of ten patents.

On October 1, 2020, he was appointed Senior member of the IUF (University Institute of France) for 5 years.