The tools of the Imaging and Transfers team

The Imaging and Transfers team has microscopy tools and devices specifically dedicated to studying heat and mass transfers. The team also mobilizes NMR spectrometers hosted at the AgroResonance platform and has special access to the whole-body 3T NMR imager at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, which is purpose-adapted for functional investigations in humans. The team can also draw on other structural analysis resources: light and electron microscopes, micro-spectrometers (IR, UV, X-ray fluorescence, Raman and X-ray microanalysis spectroscopy, ToF-SIMS), some of which can be coupled to the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation facility (SMIS, DISCO and LUCIA beamlines). The team has developed specific experimental frameworks to characterize, under controlled conditions, the heat and mass transfers in meat products during processing, e.g. ripening/drying micro-bioreactors, a tumbling-massaging simulator, and a thermal reactor enabling in situ MRI measurements. The team also has the requisite computing tools and numerical modelling and simulation software needed (Comsol Multiphysics and Matlab) to carry through its work.