The ocean test facilities at Centrale Nantes are amongst the largest in Europe. Experiments carried out in the ocean basins allow different structures to be tested in their environment of use – river or sea. The structures studied range from fishing vessels, to ships, to equipment linked to marine renewable energies such as wind turbines, floating turbines, tidal turbines or wave power systems. A team of 12 people attached to the LHEEA Laboratory (Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment) is tasked with supporting the research activities by designing and carrying out tests using these facilities. The facilities comprise four tanks: (A) TOWING TANK: second largest in France, largest in an academic environment – It with a towing carriage, which has a top speed of 8m/s, and with a wave maker, which generates regular unidirectional waves; (B) HYDRODYNAMIC AND OCEAN ENGINEERING TANK: the largest in France for this kind of testing – is equipped with a segmented wave maker, composed of 48 hinged flaps which generate directional waves; (C) SHALLOW WATER TANK – Two movable motorised footbridges are suspended over the tank to enable the installation of equipment and material. The tank is also equipped with a flap-type wavemaker to generate monodirectional waves. The tank is used to study support structures for offshore wind turbines; (D) RECIRCULATING CANAL – The recirculating canal is used to study marine propulsion systems, tidal turbines and stationary flows.
