> Facilities and equipment
The Harbours and Maritime Structures Division (NPE) has the following infrastructures and equipment:
EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES
NPE owns a testing hall for hydraulic tests with an area of 6,500 square meters. This hall is mostly occupied with testing flumes and basins for hydraulic model studies. Basins are used for three-dimensional studies of structure stability and wave penetration. Flumes are used for stability and overtopping tests of maritime structures.
The main testing facilities at NPE are:
- Wave basin, 16.2 x 6.8 m²;
- Wave basin, 38.1 x 15.7 m²;
- Wave basin, 44.0 x 23.0 m²;
- Wave basin, 30.0 x 19.6 m²;
- Four mobile, 6.0 m long, irregular wave generators for use in the wave basins (maximum water depth: 50 cm);
- Two mobile, 6.0 m long, irregular wave generators for use in the wave basins (maximum water depth: 80 cm);
- Regular wave flume, 60 cm wide, 38.0 m long;
- Irregular wave flume, 1.6 m wide, 49.4 m long, fitted with a wind generating system;
- Irregular wave flume, 3.0 m wide, 73.0 m long, with an enlarged, 11.0 x 3.0 m², section in which it is possible to perform three-dimensional stability tests. This flume is equipped with a rolling platform crane and it can be divided in three sections;
- Large 3-movement rolling platform, which serves 30% of the testing hall.
Three motor pump groups for the basin irregular wave generators, which make it possible to perform three simultaneous three-dimensional tests.
In the testing hall there is a Control Room where a centralised control of the entire irregular wave flumes and basins resides. This Control Room also receives all electric signals that convey information from models (resistive probes, force and movement sensors, video, intercoms). Also in the Control Room resides a computer software package, named SAM, which includes a set of methods for the characterization and numerical and physical simulation of sea waves (including wave groups) and processing wave data either from nature or from the wave flumes and tanks.
COMPUTER HARDWARE
At NPE there exist an extensive number of PCs for individual use, all with printers. Two of the PCs are reserved for secretarial use and the others are linked to plotters. All PCs are linked through the LNEC intranet and to Internet.
There exist also 2 powerful workstations running UNIX and LINUX operating systems to help the more computing demanding of numerical studies.
In the Control Room there are several PCs, three of them with a data acquisition controller board.
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
NPE is assisted by LNEC’s Computing Resources Division (DIIEI), the Centre for Scientific Instrumentation (CIC) and the General Maintenance Division (DII). In addition, NPE has the support of all of LNEC's operative departments and of the Library, Printing Office, and Translation Office.