From equations to codes: social relations and technical exchanges between a laboratory in mechanics and aeronautic industry
Authors: Bietti Federico U. 
Published: June 2022

In this article, we will analyse the way in which research and industry cooperates in order to develop new computational methods to solve mechanical problems related to the design of air-crafts. The paper addresses the relationship between the LMT (a laboratory in mechanics) and Airbus. More specifically, our work is concerned with the “structures and systems" sector of the LMT and the firm Airbus. Within Airbus, we focus on a design group responsible for the analysis of impacts on the structure of the aircrafts and the RD center Airbus Group Innovation. We want to show how the mastery of simulation creates new “materialities”, new relations and a new division of labour that accompanies the transformation of industrial problems into scien-tific challenges. The article is rooted in two observations from an ethnographic work carried out in the labora-tory. Firstly, I will present you an example of the new phenomenology that coding introduces in the instrumentation of mechanical models. Through this example, we will come to a better understanding of what coding is and which kind of “materialites” coding produces. We will part from the idea of computational objects/digital objects by Hui (2012, 2016) with the simon-donian horizon of technical objects (Simondon, 2012 [1958]). Secondly, we will present an example that illustrates the nature of the cooperation between Airbus and the Structures and Systems Sector of the LMT. The aim of this particular cooperation was to create a structural calculation method for the analysis of impacts on the composite structure of aircrafts. Some aeronautic and aerospace structures are made from a material called composite material. The LMT specializes in the study of these composite materials and the development of numerical methods for the analysis of mechanical problems. The simulation methods are one of the main subjects of research of the laboratory related to aeronautic industry. This kind of research is called research driven-by the industry because of the company’s direct involvement in defining: the research carried out by the laboratory. Re-lated to the simulation and the development of computational tools for design and testing, the final objective of Airbus is to replace real tests by virtual testing methods. The LMT can be described as a “factory of methods” for the aeronautic industry, and the industry sector more broadly speaking. This approach is made possible by a particular division of labour between the laboratory and the industry sector. The research is divided between three groups, each with 2 its own purpose. The first group encompasses engineers, who report the industrial problems. Secondly, professors suggest mechanical models (equations) to solve these problems. The third group refers to intermediate agents, generally PhD candidates and postdocs, transform these mechanical models into an “industrially exploitable” computational code. To conclude, we will analyse how this social organization makes the science-industry relationship possible and we will present some implications that this social dimension of technical exchanges has in the analysed research laboratory.