'-ENCORE- aims at developing non-destructive, quantitative, fast and economical methods to address the unmet need for multiaxial residual stress (?R) measurements. The project focuses on measurements in flat plates and tubes produced by the steel industry and used in many industries. These multi-physics methods exploit two effects generated by ?R: i) the acousto-elastic effect on the long distance propagation of guided elastic waves (GW), ii) the magneto-elastic effect in the vicinity of an eddy current sensor (EC). The global image of ?R will be obtained by tomographic inversion of the propagation velocity variations of guided modes affected by the ?R, selected for their best sensitivity. In a 1st method, the GWs are selectively emitted and detected by non-contact electro-magneto-acoustic transducers (EMAT), whose source and detector behaviors are affected by local magneto-elastic effect, itself to be inverted, an EMAT being usable as an EC sensor. In a 2nd, magnetostrictive patches are used for the transmission and reception of GWs, insensitive to local magneto-elastic effects in the part.

Related to the metal parts manufacturing, the automotive, aeronautic, nuclear and energy markets require to design lighter parts together with seeking for more and more security and increased life cycles. This antagonist trend is solved by enhancing the overall quality and process fine tuning. As such, the heat treatment, one of the latest process steps is critical. In the same time, environnemental context asks for an almost re-engineered current quenching process by susbstituting the quenching fluids by more environment friendly ones. This implies the absolute necessity of the knowledge and control of the metal parts thermal history all along their manufacturing process paths. This mastering drives to a specific breaktrough : controlling both heating and cooling as a unique continous and integrated process. This is the objective of HECO : the control of the history of industrial parts along their heat treatment, from HEating to COoling. Since years, numerical simulation has been identified as an efficient way to perform this control and optimizing work. The ThosT software, dedicated to the simulation of flow and thermal transfers in furnaces and quenching tanks, is used by industrials to address this issue. It has been found that a next step is needed : to reach the quality control targets, the software must gain a precision increment in simulation the overall process (heating & cooling) as a single problem. It must also incorporate coupled physical phenomena such as radiative heating & cooling and boiling. Considering the variety of equipments and accessories in the industrial plants cnfigurations (fans/burners in furnaces, turbines in quenching tank) and the displacement of the parts from an equipment to another one, the direct numerical simulation is facing new challenges : modeling a growing complexity while keeping the computing time realistic. To solve it, HECO proposes to incorporate reduced order modeling methods (ROM), adaptive moving mesh methods and alternative radiative models (MACZM) to the existing Turbulent Fluid Mechanics solvers of ThosT software. To provide a control and validation scheme, HECO integrates fine experimental investigation of thermal transfer from the furnace to the boiling according to different operating conditions (type of fluid, circulation of quenching flow, displacement of parts). The final stage of HECO is performed via a step by step integration of this work into ThosT software by the software editor partner and coordinator of HECO project. On the other hand, the 6 industrials end-users will validate to finally reach an operational new generation heat treatment simulation software.

Hot tearing phenomena seriously affect steel cast products (ingots and continuously cast). Industrial concerns are considerable, in terms of quality (extra-process like scarfing, or rejected parts) and productivity (the crack-sensitivity of "automotive" Ultra High Strength steels restricts continuous casting speeds). However, a prediction of associated internal and surface defects is still out of reach, preventing industry from a rational optimisation of processes, basically for two reasons: • In ingot casting, defects occur during filling, in a phase where no simulation software is able to provide a reliable stress state. • Physical phenomena are still poorly understood, and the different criteria proposed so far prove insufficient. Consequently, four major objectives are defined: 1. Progress in basic understanding of physical mechanisms, with help of small scale (microstructure) numerical simulation, in order to better define the nature of macroscopic criteria. 2. Set up a methodology for the identification of the constitutive parameters of selected grades, together with parameters of fracture criteria, using a large palette of instrumented tests. 3. Extend the capacity of numerical simulation, by modelling fluid-structure interaction in solidification conditions, in order to provide relevant thermomechanical information during ingot filling or within the thin solidified shells in continuous casting moulds. 4. Develop an improvement methodology for industrial processes, based on such enriched numerical simulation. The methodology is the following: A. The material characterization of three selected steel grades will provide data to both micro and macroscale numerical simulations. It will especially encompass high temperature and semi-solid state rheological identification, by means of resistance (Joule) heating tensile tests. B. Coupled micro-macro numerical simulation, applied to the analysis of different instrumented hot tearing tests (constrained solidification, with additional tensile effort), will give access to the nature and the parameters of macroscopic criteria. C. Those criteria will be implemented in THERCAST simulation package, which will be equipped with a new solver permitting the coupled solution of fluid flow (ingot mould filling, nozzle jet in continuous casting) and solid mechanics (stress-strain in thin solidified regions). D. In the framework of Experiment Design Methodology, the application of this new solver to industrial-scale tests will result in a validation of concepts at industrial scale and in a demonstration of process improvement. The consortium is well balanced: 3 steel suppliers, 1 technical centre, 1 software company and 2 research laboratories. All of them are major actors in each of the industrial, technical and scientific domain. The consortium is compact and robust; it is in a position to propose major breakthroughs in three domains: • Multi-physic numerical simulation: fluid-structure interaction (liquid-solid) in solidifiication conditions • Rheological characterisation of steels at high temperature and in the semi-solid state • Multiscale numerical modelling of solidification phenomena

Metallurgical slags are major by-products generated by the steel and iron industry. Although they represent potentially important economic resources, as they still often contain significant amounts of "Strategic Metals" (SMs), slags are also considered as industrial waste that may pose public health and environmental concerns. The goal of the HYPASS project is to propose technological innovations for both a cost-effective recovery of strategic metals and an eco-friendly management of metallurgical dumps. In this respect, HYPASS will consider the process as a whole, from by-products production to slag valorization and finally rehabilitation of contaminated landfills, with the ultimate goal of developing economically feasible and environmentally acceptable "zero-waste" processes. The core of the project is the development, assessment and evaluation of two complementary valorization routes using: 1/ hydrometallurgical-based approaches (under alkaline conditions) to recover high SMs amounts, and 2/ phytostabilization approaches [and the beneficial role of "Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi" (AMF)] to promote ecological restauration of slagheaps. Additionally, HYPASS proposes to list and to map existing dumpsites, to perform "Life Cycle Assessments" (LCA) for various processing methods and to develop a "Decision-Support Tool" (DST) to help identifying the best treatment options, both from an economical and from an environmental point of view. HYPASS technologies will be implemented at a large slagheap situated at Châteauneuf (Loire, France), which is registered in the SAFIR network. The project involves one industrial (Industeel France ArcelorMittal) and two academic partners (ARMINES/SPIN and BRGM) and is organized into eight complementary "Working Packages" (WPs). Strong and numerous impacts are expected from the project. Technologically, the development of new approaches to recover SMs is in itself very innovative and promising, as this could allow to process large amounts of slags that are currently weakly re-used. This is very important in relation to the ambitious targets set by the "European Union" (EU) for recycling metallurgical by-products and decreasing landfilling practices. Environmentally, using phytostabilization as a capping strategy for slagheap rehabilitation will not only improve visual aspect of degraded lands, but this will also trigger the restauration of a local biodiversity and the construction of a technosoil. Restoring biodiversity and stimulating soil formation could give a new value to derelict slagheap, as this is directly linked to ecosystem services that a land may deliver. Additionally, HYPASS will have significant economical and societal impacts, as it could reduce the dependence of European countries to SMs importation. Finally, HYPASS could help to create new jobs in the emerging area of high added-value waste treatment and valorization.