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IMFT – Chercheur CNRS

Groupe Fluides & Particules
2 Allée du Professeur Camille Soula
31400 TOULOUSE

Tél: 05 34 32 28 64 (IMFT)

Email: matthieu.mercier@imft.fr

News

01/2026: Thesis proposal (doctoral fellowship application) on plastique pollution to be announced (similar topic of last year).

20/11/2025: Congratulations to Cécile Le Dizes for defending successfully her PhD in Earth Sciences !

02/2025: Thesis proposal (doctoral fellowship application) on the following topic : Transport of plastic particules within turbidity currents – no candidate selected.

10/2024: Article (in French) on the challenges of internal tide modelling, related to the thesis of Cécile Le Dizès, published in The Conversation.

10/2024: Participation to the European Researchers Night to present science related to PALAGRAM -> more here

09/2023: The article summarizing the results on plastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, following the at-sea campaign in partnership with “Expedition 7th Continent,” was published in Marine Pollution Bulletin.

05/2023: Article (in French) in the Epsiloon journal on plastic pollution.

04/2021: We organized an IUTAM Symposium at IMFT in 2022 on “Particles, Drops and Bubbles in Stratified Environments.” You can consult the summary booklet of contributions on ZENODO.

02/2021: An update to the PLASTICOUNT tool (Matlab GUI) is available for download to make predictions on the quantities of ocean plastic waste collected in the oceans.

Bio

I am a CNRS researcher at IMFT. My research focuses on environmental fluid mechanics and the dynamics of moving bodies (suspension of solid particles, sedimentation, towed objects) in stratified fluids. My work includes internal gravity waves, the dynamics of particle suspensions in fluids at rest or in the context of turbidity currents, and ocean plastic pollution (floating particles in agitated and stratified fluids).

From 2013 to 2015, I was a postdoctoral researcher at IMFT, where I developed the ANR-funded postdoctoral research project on fluid-particle interactions in stratified media (F-PISE project).

From 2010 to 2013, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at ENDLab at MIT (USA), in collaboration with Professor Thomas Peacock.

Previously (2007-2010), I completed my PhD under the supervision of Thierry Dauxois at the Physics Laboratory of ENS Lyon.

Current Research Activities

  • ANR PALAGRAM Project (PArticle-LAden-GRAvity-currents-Modelling, more information)
  • Internal gravity waves and oceanic internal tides
  • Fine particle infiltration/clogging in a riverbed
  • Modeling of oceanic plastic pollution
  • Sedimentation/Particle wake
  • Suspension dynamics

 

Publications

IDref - open access
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ORCID
  1. C.-F. Mo, M. J. Mercier, J. Magnaudet, J. Zhang. Wake instability past a sphere settling in a strongly stratified fluid, soumis à Journal of Fluid Mechanics – lien arXiv (2026).
  2. C. Gadal, J. Schneider, C. Bonamy, J. Chauchat, Y. Dossmann, S. Kiesgen de Richter, M.J. Mercier, F. Naaim-Bouvet, M. Rastello, L. Lacaze. Particle-laden gravity currents: The lock-release slumping regime at the laboratory scale, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 195, 105539, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2025.105539 (2026).
  3. C. Le Dizès, N. Grisouard, O. Thual, M. J. Mercier. Three-dimensional modelling of internal tide generation over isolated seamounts in a rotating ocean, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 1022:A5. doi:10.1017/jfm.2025.10647 (2025).
  4. Gadal, C., Schneider, J., Bonamy, C., Chauchat, J., Dossmann, Y., Kiesgen de Richter, S., Mercier, M.J., Naaim-Bouvet, F., Rastello, M. and Lacaze, L. Particle-laden Gravity Currents: The Lock-release Slumping Regime at the Laboratory Scale. In Particulate Gravity Currents (eds B. Kneller, E. Meiburg, B. Vowinckel and Z. He). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781394216727.ch2 (2025).
  5. M. Poulain-Zarcos, Nimish Pujara, Gautier Verhille, M.J. Mercier. Laboratory experiments related to marine plastic pollution: a review of past work and future directions. Comptes Rendus de Physique, Online first, pp. 1-32. doi:10.5802/crphys.217 (2024).
  6. A. Aguilar-Corona, M. Abbas, M. J. Mercier, L. Lacaze. Viscous rebound of a quasi-two-dimensional cylinder on a solid wall. Physical Review Fluids, 9(4) 044301 – lien Arxiv (2024)
  7. C. Gadal, M. J. Mercier, L. Lacaze. Slumping regime in lock-release turbidity currents, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 974:A4 (2023)
  8. Y. Ourmieres, M. Arnaud, P. Deixonne, J.-F. Ghiglione, M. Albignac, M. Poulain-Zarcos, M. J. Mercier; A. Ter Halle. Back-tracking of microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea by coupling modelling and in-situ measurements, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 195, 115333 (2023).
  9. M. J. Mercier, M. Poulain-Zarcos, Y. Ourmieres, J. F. Ghiglione, A. ter Halle. Plastic litter in the oceans. Most of it is gone missing, but it might just be transformed… or transported, Europhysics News, 54/3, 24-27 (2023).
  10. C. Papoutsellis, M.J. Mercier, N. Grisouard. Internal tide generation from isolated seamounts and continental shelves, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 964, A20. doi:10.1017/jfm.2023.358 (2023).
  11. M. Poulain-Zarcos, M.J. Mercier, A. ter Halle. Global characterization of oscillating grid turbulence in homogeneous and two-layer fluids, and its implication for mixing at high Peclet number, Physical Review Fluids, 7, 054626 (2022).
  12. M. J. Mercier, S. Wang, J. Péméja, P. Ern, A. M. Ardekani. Settling disks in a linearly stratified fluid, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 885, A2 (2020).
  13. J. Magnaudet, M. J. Mercier. Particles, drops and bubbles moving across sharp interfaces and stratified layers, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 52 , 61-91 (2020).
  14. J. Zhang, M. J. Mercier, J. Magnaudet. Core mechanisms of drag enhancement on bodies settling in a stratified fluid, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 875, 622-656 (2019).
  15. Poulain, M. ; Mercier, M. J. ; Brach, L. ; Martignac, M. ; Routaboul, C. ; Perez, E. ; Desjean, M. C. ; ter Halle, A. Small microplastics as a main contributor to plastic mass balance in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, Environmental Science & Technology, 53(3), 1157-1164 (2019).
  16. M. H. Alford, T. Peacock, and IWISE co-authors (including M. J. Mercier). The formation and fate of internal waves in the South China Sea, Nature, 521, 65-69 (2015).
  17. M. J. Mercier, A. M. Ardekani, M. R. Allshouse, B. Doyle, T. Peacock. Propulsion via natural convection, Physical Review Letters, 112, 204501 (2014).
  18. M. J. Mercier, L. Gostiaux, S. J. Ghaemsaidi, J. Sommeria, H. Didelle, S. Viboud, K. Helfrich, T. Dauxois, and T. Peacock. Large-scale, realistic laboratory modeling of M_2 internal tide generation at the Luzon Strait, Geophysical Research Letters, 40, 5704—5709 (2013).
  19. M. J. Mercier, M. Mathur, L. Gostiaux, T. Gerkema, J. M. Magalhães, J. C. B. da Silva, and T. Dauxois. Soliton generation by internal tidal beams impinging on a pycnocline : laboratory experiments, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 704, 37—60 (2012).
  20. M. J. Mercier, R. Vasseur and T. Dauxois. Resurrecting Dead-water Phenomenon, Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 18, 193—208 (2011).
  21. M. J. Mercier, D. Martinand, M. Mathur, L. Gostiaux, T. Peacock, and T. Dauxois. New wave generation, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 657, 308—334 (2010).
  22. T. Peacock, M. J. Mercier, H. Didelle, S. Viboud and T. Dauxois. A laboratory study of low-mode internal tide scattering by finite-amplitude topography, Physics of Fluids, 21, 121702 (2009).
  23. M. J. Mercier, N. B. Garnier and T. Dauxois. Reflection and diffraction of internal waves analyzed with the Hilbert transform, Physics of Fluids, 20, 086601 (2008).

Zoom sur d'anciens projets...

La synthèse sur l’ensemble des travaux réalisés au cours de la collaboration IWISE (Internal Waves In Straits Experiments) sur les ondes internes dans le détroit de Luzon, récemment publiée dans Nature, est présentée sur :
* la page MIT News (06/05/2015).
* la page Scripps News (05/05/2015).

Les résultats sur la propulsion induite par convection naturelle sont présentés sur
* la page MIT News (21/05/2014).
* la section PRL Highlights (21/05/2014).

Les travaux réalisés sur la modélisation expérimentale du détroit de Luzon sont présentés
* dans un article de l’édition de Juin de Earth Magazine, vol. 59 no. 6, p.26-27 (06/2014).
* dans un article de USA Today (22/05/2014).
* sur la page Actualités du CNRS (INP) (07/02/2014).
* dans Scientific American (15/01/2014).
* sur la page principale du MIT (08/01/2014).
* dans la section « zoom sur… » du site de l’ENS Lyon (12/12/2013).
* dans la section Science & Médecine du journal Le Monde (11/12/2013).

Divers

Quelques informations sur le phénomène des Eaux mortes