Yann M Le Pape

Bio

Bio

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Since 2020: Nuclear Structures and Construction Group Leader and Distinguished Scientist at ORNL leading this group towards sustaining global leadership in research and development in the areas of concrete aging, characterization, modeling and low-carbon concrete, and fostering an inclusive environment for innovation, creativity and collaboration.

2013 to 2020: Senior Scientist, Expert in Concrete and Civil Structures, Team Leader at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in charge of the research activities related to concrete structure aging for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, Material Pathway, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), aiming at supporting Long Term Operations (LTO) of nuclear power plants. Principal Investigator or contributor of projects sponsored by the Nuclear Science User Facility (NSUF) Program, the Nuclear Energy University Pro- gram (NEUP), the Additive Manufacturing O ce (AMO) and Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E). From 2016 to 2017, Joint-Faculty Appointment at the Civil and Engineering Department of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 2017-18, loan-in position as a Senior Consultant assigned in France for ORNL in charge of the research activities related to concrete structures for the U.S. DOE LWRS Program, Material Pathway, and of the development of related research collaborations with European research institutions (Government, Academia and Industry).

EDF Inc., in residence at EPRI

2010 to 2013: Project Manager, in residence at the Electric Power Research Institute, Charlotte NC, developing a joint EPRI and EDF R&D program to improve structural assessment methodologies for the long term operation of concrete structures in the nuclear industry and help utilities preparing their license renewal. In charge of a pilot project on chloride attack on cooling towers in cooperation with a U.S. utility including the development and the qualification of nondestructive techniques (part of EPRI Non Destructive Examination reliability laboratory).

EDF R&D

2008 to 2010 Scientific Advisor for Civil Engineering activities at the Materials Aging Institute (MAI) and CONCRETE project manager and developer –modeling of cementitious materials.

2006 to 2010 Project Manager and Team Lead of BILOBA 'Toolbox for the Assessment of the Structural Integrity and Long-Term Operation of Reinforced and Prestressed Structures' interconnecting different teams within EDF R&D, different units at EDF and University partners. Modeling concrete aging and its structural effects on nuclear containment and cooling towers. Personal contributions to shrinkage and creep testing and modeling, creep-fracture interaction, ASR testing, risk analysis of containment building and modeling of concrete properties using upscaling strategies (performed at the Materials Aging Institute).

2001 to 2006 Researcher at the Materials and Mechanics of Components (MMC) Department, EDF R&D (Les Renardieres, France). In charge of diverse scientific activities in the field of the aging of civil infrastructures (hydro-/nuclear/power delivery sectors).

2004 to 2007 Adjunct Associate Professor at the Civil Engineering Department at the University Paris-Est

European Commission

2000 to 2001 Auxiliary Researcher of the European Commission Joint Research Center (European Laboratory for Structural Assessment, Ispra, Italy), in charge of modeling activities of the SEISPROTECT project on the protection of architectural heritage subjected to seismic loading.

Education

• PhD, Civil Engineering, University of Strasbourg, France (2000)
• M.Sc. Structural Engineering, University of Strasbourg, France (1997)
• Aggregation Civil Engineering, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (1995)
• B.Sc. Civil Engineering, Ecole Nationale des Arts et Industrie de Strasbourg (1994)

Technical Interests

Over the past 20 years, my research interests were primarily oriented toward the understanding, characterization and modeling of time-dependent mechanisms and aging of concrete in nuclear power plants and hydroelectric generating stations, e.g., post- tensioned and reinforced containment building, biological shield, spent-fuel handling buildings, cooling towers, concrete dams.

1. Advanced simulation of time-dependent phenomenons (hydration, irradiation, chemical degradation, fracture) in heterogeneous materials.

2. Interpretation of multiscale characterization of chemical, physical and mechanical degradation in cementitious using varied imaging techniques

3. Design and testing of a large-scale reinforced and post-tensioned structures subject to aging and accidental conditions.

4. Development and reliability analysis of innovative nondestructive techniques using nonlinear ultrasonic propagation (e.g., characterization carbonation depth) and 3D microwaves holography (e.g., detection of corrosion activity of embedded steel in concrete).

5. Probabilistic assessment of the structural performance of nuclear installations.

Awards and Honors

Japan Concrete Institute 2022 Award. Torrence, C.E.; Giorla, A.B.; Li, Y.; Tajuelo Rodriguez, E.; Arregui Mena, J.D.; Rosseel, T.M. and Le Pape, Y., MOSAIC: An Effective FFT-based Numerical Method to Assess Aging Properties of Concrete, Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, 2021, 19(2):149-67.

Chair of the International Committee on Irradiated Concrete (ICIC) – Elected November 2017, discharged June 2022

RILEM 2020 Outstanding Papers Award. Le Pape, Y.; Sanahuja, J. and Alsaid, M.H.F., Irradiation-Induced Damage in Concrete-Forming Aggregates { Revisiting Literature Data Through Micromechanics, Materials and Structures, 2020, 53(62):35.

RILEM 2015 Outstanding Papers Award. Kim, G., Kim, J.-Y., Kurtis, K. E., Jacobs, L., Le Pape, Y. and Guimaraes, M., 2014. Characterization of Concrete Carbonation by Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) in Nonlinear Rayleigh Waves, Materials and Structures, Published online Dec. 27,

2014 Significant Contribution Award of the Materials Science and Technology Division of the American Nuclear Society

Proposals and Partnerships

Led successful research for

• DOE NE – LWRS, NEUP and NEAMS Programs
• DOE – Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) Program
• U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
• ORNL – Seed Money Program
• ORNL – Lab-directed Research and Development Program

Research collaborations with

• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) 
• Electricite de France (EDF), France
• Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, France
• Centrum výzkumu Rez, Husinec, Czech Republic
• VTT, Espo, Finland
• Fortum, Finland

Academic collaborations with

• Czech Technical University, Prague, CZ 
• University of California, Los Angeles CA
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign IL    
• University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN
• University of Missouri, Rolla MO
• Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN
• University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa AL
• University of South Carolina, Colombus SC
• University of Tokyo, Japan
• Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls ID
• Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China

Short Selection of Publications

+100 peer-reviewed journal articles and proceedings +2; 000 citations, h-index: 28, i10-index: 44

Torrence, C.E.; Giorla, A.B.; Li, Y.; Tajuelo Rodriguez, E.; Arregui Mena, J.D.; Rosseel, T.M. and Le Pape, Y., MOSAIC: An Effective FFT-based Numerical Method to Assess Aging Properties of Concrete, Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, 2021, 19(2):149-67.

Le Pape, Y. Radiation Effects in Concrete for Nuclear Systems, Book Chapter in Comprehensive Nuclear Materials, Elsevier, 2020.

Le Pape, Y.; Sanahuja, J. and Alsaid, M.H.F., Irradiation-Induced Damage in Concrete-Forming Aggregates { Revisiting Literature Data Through Micromechanics, Materials and Structures, 2020, 53(62):35.

Le Pape, Y.; Alsaid, M.H.F. and Giorla, A.B., Rock-forming minerals radiation-induced volumetric expansion { Revisiting the literature data, Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, 2018, 16:191-209.

Charpin, L.; Le Pape, Y,; Coustabeau, E.; Toppani, E.; Heining, G.; Le Bellego, C.; Masson, B.; Montalvo, J.; Courtois, A.; Sanahuja, J and Reviron, N. 2017 A 12 year EDF study of concrete creep under uniaxial and biaxial loading, Cement and Concrete Research, 103, 140-159.

Saouma, V.; Hariri-Ardebili, M.; Le Pape, Y. and Balaji, R., 2016 E ect of Alkali-Silica Reaction on the Shear Strength of Reinforced Concrete Structural Members. A Numerical and Statistical Study. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 310, 295-310

Le Pape, Y., 2015. Structural Effects of Radiation-Induced Volumetric Expansion on Unreinforced Concrete Biological Shields, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 295, 534-548.

Pignatelli, I., Kumar, A., Field, K., Wang, B., Yu, Y., Le Pape, Y., Bauchy, M. and Sant, G., 2016. Direct Experimental Evidence for Differing Reactivity Alterations of Minerals following Irradiation: The Case of Calcite and Quartz, Scientific Reports, 6(20155), 1-10.

Field, K.G., Le Pape, Y. and Remec, I. 2015. Radiation Effects in Concrete for Nuclear Power Plants { Part I: Quantification of Radiation Exposure and Radiation Effects, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 282, 126-143.

Kim, G., Kim, J.-Y., Kurtis, K. E., Jacobs, L., Le Pape, Y. and Guimaraes, M., 2014. Characterization of Concrete Carbonation by Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) in Nonlinear Rayleigh Waves, Materials and Structures, Published online Dec. 27.

Ghasr, M.T. , Le Pape, Y., Scott, D.B. and Zoughi R., 2014. Holographical microwave imaging of corroded steel bars in concrete, ACI Materials Journal, 112, 115-124.

Berveiller, M., Le Pape, Y., Sudret, B. and Perrin, F., 2012. Updating the long-term creep strains in concrete containment vessels by using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation and polynomial chaos expansions, Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 8(5), 425-440.

Publications