SEALENCE Industrial Chair

Elastomer Solution for Naval Acoustics and Watertight Design 

SEALENCE - Solution Élastomère pour l’Acoustique Navale et la Conception Étanche

The first Industrial Chair with funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) at Centrale Nantes

The SEALENCE Industrial Chair, headed up by Professor Erwan Verron (Centrale Nantes - GeM, UMR CNRS 6183), is the first ANR (French National Research Agency) Industrial Chair at Centrale Nantes. It is part of a drive for scientific excellence and technology transfer to support the naval industry and France's technological independence.

A consortium of experts focusing on applied research

SEALENCE brings together Centrale Nantes, Naval Group and CETIM, building on strong regional expertise and a long history of industrial collaboration on the mechanical behavior of elastomers. This partnership aims to study the behavior of elastomer materials under pressure for applications in water-tightness and naval acoustics.

Scientific objectives and technological challenges

The scientific approach combines experimental measurement, theoretical modelling and numerical simulation, with a clear objective: to offer predictive tools for the naval industry and beyond (defence, marine renewable energies, nuclear, hydrogen, etc.) on the compression response of elastomers.

While most current scientific work considers that elastomers are virtually incompressible, the SEALENCE project will study and numerically simulate their behaviour in pressure zones where they change volume. The project will offer alternatives to the methods used for 60 years and propose a uniform formulation for compressible and incompressible materials.

Two main industrial applications have been identified:

• micro-inclusion foams with elastomer matrices, used as acoustic coatings for submarines
• elastomers under high hydrostatic pressures, for submarine electrical cables.

A structured and ambitious programme

The Chair is based on three major areas of research:

• WP1: Compressibility of elastomers with microspheres,
• WP2: Confined behaviour of elastomers under high hydrostatic pressure,
• WP3: Theoretical and numerical tools for compressible materials.

It benefits from cutting-edge experimental infrastructure, in particular at Centrale Nantes, Naval Group and CETIM (Dynamic Testing Resources and Expertise Platform at Centrale Nantes, K-metre test bench and K-metre cell at Naval Group, specific resources at CETIM) and funding of €1 million over 4 years (ANR, industrial partners) with a total budget of €1.86 million.

A major scientific and industrial impact

It is expected that the results of the SEALENCE project will contribute to:

• Developing innovative materials for the shipbuilding industry,
• Improving design and simulation tools,
• Training engineers and scientific managers.

The Chair is thus positioned as a key player in the teaching-research-innovation continuum, with strong potential for standardisation and industrial application.