Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA)
LHEEA website
The Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment at Centrale Nantes is a CNRS mixed research unit (UMR 6598).
The LHEEA is tasked with both advancing theoretical knowledge and resolving concrete problems around four scientific themes: free-surface hydrodynamics, fluid-structure interactions, dynamics of the atmosphere and systems approach for ground and marine propulsion systems.
The LHEEA tackles its research problems by implementing a combination of approaches: numerical simulation (development and use of modeling software, especially in Computational Fluid Dynamics-CFD), experiments at model scale (engine test benches, ocean and wave tanks, atmospheric wind tunnels) and in-situ experiments (SEM-REV, offshore sea test site).
One of LHEEA's test facilities is the hydrodynamics test hall, equipped with several test tanks. The towing tank and wave tank are part of Europe’s largest facilities of this type. The experiments conducted can test a lot of equipment in their use environment, river or sea. The structures studied are fishing vessels, ships and also equipment related to marine renewable energy such as wind turbines, floating turbines, tidal turbines or wave power systems.
The towing tank at Centrale Nantes is 140 m-long, 5 m-wide, with a constant depth of 3 m. It is equipped with a towing carriage able to move in both directions, at speeds up to 8 m/s. At one end of the tank, a wave maker generates waves with heights up to 0.5 m. At the other end, a beach allows waves to break, therefore limiting the reflection of waves in the tank. It is the second largest towing tank in France, the largest in higher education.