1st series of tests in the Centrale Nantes towing tank for the WASANO project

The WASANO project addresses the need for accurate and controlled descriptions of environmental conditions in ocean engineering. To overcome the numerous scientific obstacles identified, the project will propose innovative methods to:
 

• define the sea states that cause extreme responses in offshore structures
• reproduce these sea states in a ocean test tank.

This will be achieved via both numerical simulations and reduced-scale experiments in the Centrale Nantes ocean test facilities.

A first series of tests took place in the towing tank in March 2022 - focusing on single waves and experimental validation of the methodologies developed in numerical simulation. The installation consisted of measuring these waves via wave probes placed along the 140-metre length of the tank.

The measurements obtained from these tests are intended to validate under experimental conditions:
 

• generation of a calibrated wave spectrum at a distance from the wave generator.
• control of the statistics associated with a given wave spectrum at any position in the wave tank.

The test results mean that we can now envisage wave-structure interaction tests in which the wave conditions, and in particular the probability of extreme events, are very precisely controlled. These results have been shared with all the partners to feed into the various scientific themes of the WASANO project (statistics, fundamental physics, experimental and numerical modelling, etc.).

In July, all of the project partners will come together at Centrale Nantes in order to meet up and conduct initial joint work sessions. This will be a great opportunity to set in motion all future actions for the WASANO project!

The WASANO project receives funding from NExT.

> Learn about the WASANO project and all the partners