Bureau Veritas - Centrale Nantes Chair

Centrale Nantes, with its excellent reputation in the field of numerical and experimental hydrodynamics, and Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification services for shipping and offshore structures, created this international chair in Hydrodynamics and Marine Structures in order to make significant improvements in the safety and performance of ships of the future.

This ambitious research programme also involves two spin-offs from Centrale Nantes: 

• HydrOcean, key service provider for the evaluation and optimisation of marine and offshore structure performance.
• Nextflow Software, start-up publisher of fluid mechanics software.

The involvement of these four partners in the chair will foster the emergence of technological innovation with regards to the concept, design and performance of ships and marine structures, environmental protection and safety standards, reduced fuel consumption.

The chair benefits from exceptional resources: 

• Centrale Nantes wave tanks, which can simulate the impact of extreme storm conditions (generating the highest waves in Europe) on models.
• Cutting-edge numerical simulation software, developed by Centrale Nantes, Bureau Veritas, HydrOcean and Nextflow
• High performance computing capacity particularly with the Centrale Nantes supercomputer, making possible simulations that were once beyond the reach of the partners

Research and development will focus on three key areas: 

• Ship safety
• Interacting bodies and flexible connections
• Swell performance.
   

 This chair reflects Bureau Veritas' commitment to call upon the innovative capacity of the best engineers and researchers in order to establish the optimum conditions for the development of the shipping industry of the future, and thereby proposing new services to our clients to improve their performance with regard to industry standards and regulations for quality, health, safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. 

Philippe Donche-Gay, Executive Vice-President, Marine and Offshore Division, Bureau Veritas

This new step is line with our long-established collaboration between the four establishments in the maritime field. Through the intensive use of numerical simulation tools, it will allow us to go further and more quickly together towards designing the ship in demand in civil and military sectors

Arnaud Poitou, former director of Centrale Nantes

The project partners

Bureau Veritas is a global leader in Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC), delivering high quality services to help clients meet the growing challenges of quality, safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. Created in 1828, the group has 66,000 employees working in 1,400 office and laboratories all over the world. The Marine & Offshore Division provides classification and certification services for ships and offshore structures. Its excellent scientific reputation is built on its research work and collaboration with the marine industry as a whole. The results obtained allow Bureau Veritas to provide technical support to shipowners, shipyards and other industry operators and to improve regulatory requirements and compliance.

HydrOcean offers design support in the maritime field, with the use of innovative numerical simulation tools capable of accurately simulating the most simple to the most complex hydrodynamic phenomena. HydrOcean was founded in 2007 by Erwan Jacquin and Centrale Nantes, and acquired by Bureau Veritas in September 2015 with the objective of pursuing its development abroad. Since its inception, HydrOcean has maintained an efficient research partnership with Centrale Nantes paving the way for the joint development of innovative tools in excellent conditions, providing a clear competitive advantage. 

Nextflow Software is a publisher of fluid mechanics and hydrodynamics software. It was founded in July 2015 as an extension of the HydrOcean's software publishing activity. In collaboration with Centrale Nantes it develops innovative software for the industrial market. Its primary focus is on innovative fluid mechanics software for industry: automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, marine and offshore etc. Nextflow will take an active part in the Chair using its expertise to develop and bring innovative software to market. 

News from the Chair

Experimental campaign in tank | 2021

This second experimental campaign conducted in the Hydrodynamic and Ocean Engineering Tank at Centrale Nantes took place between February and April 2021. The tests focused on the behaviour of a containership, modelled at a scale of 1:65.

The objective of these tests was to better understand the characteristics of ship motions & structural responses, but also the non-linear fluid-structure interaction and how this interaction contributes to the ship's structural responses. For this purpose, the container ship was confronted with Regular waves (120deg), Irregular waves (180deg) and Equivalent Design Wave (180deg) reproducing extreme wave conditions.

The analysis of the results of this campaign will allow :

• A better understanding of the three different approaches in wave type
• A reduction of risks associated with the estimation of extreme responses of ship structures in design.