The damage initiation and development in flax/epoxy laminates under quasi-static tension is studied. The laminates are made of quasi-unidirectional woven prepregs in different configurations [0°]8, [0°, 90°]2S, [−45°, 45°]2S and [0°, 90°, +45°, −45°]S, and processed using an autoclave. The damage was monitored during the tensile test using acoustic emission and observed by post-mortem microscopy of the samples. The stress–strain curves illustrate the ductile behaviour of the [+45°, −45°]2S composite, whereas in the other composites a more brittle behaviour was observed. Non-linearity of the stress–strain curves is explained by the intrinsic non-linearity of flax fibres in tension. The combination of the stress–strain data and the registered acoustic emission data is used to identify the damage initiation and propagation thresholds. The damage thresholds are the lowest in the [0°]8 laminate and the highest in the [+45°, −45°]2S laminate. The observed fracture zones and damage mode are cracks inside and on the boundary of technical fibres, cracks on the boundary of tows, matrix cracking, fibre pull-out and fibre breakage. A notable feature of the damage behaviour is almost full absence of transverse matrix cracks inside tows in 90° plies, which are the major damage modes in glass- and carbon-reinforced plastics. This is attributed to the low stress concentrations in transverse direction due to the low transverse modulus of flax fibres.

In order to understand the influence of crucible geometry combined with natural convection and Marangoni convection on melt flow pattern, temperature and pressure fields in silicon Czochralski crystal growth process, a set of numerical simulations was conducted. We carry out calculation enable us to determine temperature, pressure and velocity fields in function of Grashof and Marangoni numbers. The essential results show that the hemispherical geometry of crucible seems to be adapted for the growth of a good quality crystal and the pressure field is strongly affected by natural and Marangoni convection and it is more sensitive than temperature.

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This study deals with the transition toward quasi-periodicity of buoyant convection generated by a horizontal temperature gradient in a three-dimensional parallelepipedic cavity with dimensions $4\times 2\times 1$ (length $\times$ width $\times$ height). Numerical continuation techniques, coupled with an Arnoldi method, are used to locate the steady and Hopf bifurcation points as well as the different steady and periodic flow branches emerging from them for Prandtl numbers ranging from 0 to 0.025 (liquid metals). Our results highlight the existence of two steady states along with many periodic cycles, all with different symmetries. The bifurcation scenarios consist of complex paths between these different solutions, giving a succession of stable flow states as the Grashof number is increased, from steady to periodic and quasi-periodic. The change of these scenarios with the Prandtl number, in connection with the crossing of bifurcation points, was carefully analysed.

The effects of several growth parameters in cylindrical and spherical Czochralski crystal process are studied numerically and particularly, we focus on the influence of the pressure field. We present a set of threedimensional computational simulations using the finite volume package Fluent in two different geometries, a new geometry as cylindro-spherical and the traditional configuration as cylindro-cylindrical. We found that the evolution of pressure which is has not been studied before; this important function is strongly related to the vorticity in the bulk flow, the free surface and the growth interface. It seems that the pressure is more sensitive to the breaking of symmetry than the other properties that characterize the crystal growth as temperature or velocity fields.