Page 153 - Book_Artelia_10years

The hydraulics Laboratory in Grenoble
La Cotinière harbour - France - © Artedrones

Created in the early 1920s, the hydraulics Laboratory is one of the oldest roots of the
Artelia Group. Applying the laws of similitude in fluid mechanics, it operates scale models
of hydraulic structures, development works and facilities in order to study their behaviour
in the presence of natural or artificial phenomena. Until the 1960s, such physical modelling
was the only form of simulation available. Then, with the rapid progress of mathematical
and numerical modelling, our Laboratory gradually began to focus on the most complex
configurations and physical phenomena, drawing on the latest technological progress
in fields such as mechanical design, electronics, automation, data acquisition and
processing. Today, it allows us to offer clients a higher level of analysis and guarantee
greater reliability for their projects.

Indeed, over the past ten years the Laboratory has been called upon to study complex fluid-
structure interactions that cannot be analysed at the present time by numerical models.
Whether in the area of turbulent, 2-phase flow in a water treatment plant, chaotic wave
breaking on shallows in the coastal zone, or the mooring of floating structures offshore
or in rivers, our scale models have provided precise answers and led to improvements at
the design and construction stages. And they have always been an incomparable means of
visualising a project, enabling all the different players involved to discuss, exchange ideas,
improve safety and move forward. In recent years, we have also opened the Laboratory
to industrial clients in search of an experimentation centre, offering them the use of our
logistics facilities and the expertise of our teams.

La Cotinière harbour - France - © Artedrones

Pierre-Georges Anquetin
Director of the hydraulics laboratory

150 I ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE I 151