History of the LFCR
The Laboratory of Complex Fluids and their Reservoirs was created after research teams grouped together on a series of occasions between 2000 and 2010. As from the merger in 2000 of the two former laboratories of the University of Pau and the Adour Region, the LHP and the LTEMPM, the “Thermodynamics and Energetics of Complex Fluids” laboratory was recognized as a joint research unit (UMR) in 2003, led by Prof. Alain Graciaa. The creation of the UMR 5150 was also the materialization of the long-standing partnership between the different players in the laboratory with ELF AQUITAINE at the outset, then with TOTAL, the latter undertaking to support the unit’s research activities in terms of both financial and human resources.
2007 was a second watershed point in the life of the laboratory. The first step was to create the conditions for the development of a “Geomechanics” theme on the Anglet site to materialize the projects associating the laboratory and TOTAL in the Multidisciplinary Institute for Applied Research in Petroleum Engineering (IPRA - FR 2952) undertaken as from 2007. At the same time, our supervisors asked us to propose a scheme for the integration of researchers and teachers-researchers from the “Modeling and Imaging in Petroleum Engineering” UMR, that the INSU decided not to pursue for reasons of critical size. Therefore, initially focused on petroleum fluids, the laboratory’s scientific project was enhanced by projects concerning porous media and the genesis of geological reservoirs. The Laboratory then became the “Laboratory of Complex Fluids and their Reservoirs - LFC-R/UMR 5150” in January 2011 (managed by: Prof. Gilles Pijaudier-Cabot) then finally, LFCR in January 2016 (managed by: Prof. Guillaume Galliero) the relation between fluids and reservoirs having been established.
As regards the CNRS, the LFCR reports first to the INSIS and second, to the INSU. It is essentially attached to section 10 (Fluid and reactive media, transportation, transfers, transformation processes), and also secondarily to sections 9 (Structural and materials engineering, mechanics of solids, biomechanics, acoustics) and 18 (the Earth and telluric planets: structure, history, models).
