Coastal management is ACRI-IN's core business. The company has dedicated the majority of its research and development efforts to this field. 4 subjects are particularly representative of the development we do:
2008: ACRI-IN, in partnership with the Compagnie d'Exploitation des Port (CEP, subsidiary of Veolia), wanted to develop a new temporary anchorage design, meeting the following objectives:
ACRI-IN then came up with the idea of an "inverted pendulum" and performed feasibility studies on a structure originally called Anchoring Flower, now Waterlily
The first designs were made in 2008, digital development and structural analysis in 2009, and the first prototype installed in Bandol Bay during the summer of 2010 for an initial test phase on design measurements.
ACRI-IN's R&D work included coming up with an original structure, removable, with minimal impact on the ocean floor, and especially to withstand wind and wave conditions much stronger than those ordinarily encountered by traditional floating pontoons, while remaining within acceptable limits on production costs and installation.
Objective: Installation of a tsunami and coastal flooding warning network in the Mediterranean.
Amount: 6,2 M€
Financing: Fonds Unifié Interministériel (FUI) [Interministerial Unified Fund], the Region and General Councils, partners
Research project completed between the end of 2009 and June 2011, divided into:
17 partners coordinated by Thales Alenia Space:
User groups associated with the project: MEEDDAT (DPPR), DSC (Major Risk Management), SDIS 06, General Counsel 06 (Environmental Management), Martinique General Counsel, Maritime Prefecture, City of Nice, City of Antibes, Sophia Antipolis Area Community.
ACRI-IN had the responsibility of deploying the detection network (prototype):
The measurements collected and analyzed from the prototype network identified additional scientific and technical interest: the water height measurements in ports ended up being interesting data to evaluate and qualify actual agitation in port bodies of water, to better understand the height of overflow specific to the site, and to determine their own periods for basins shown by seiche phenomena intrinsic to each site.
Objective: optimize power performance and manage the impact on the marine environment of seawater heat pumps (HP).
Financing: FUI, territorial governments, Principality of Monaco
Research project by the PACA Maritime Cluster in 2009 to be performed between 2011 and 2014.
Suited to high population density coastal areas, the principle of the seawater HP technology using marine energy is quickly catching on in the Mediterranean, driven by high water temperature, the lack of tides, favorable bathymetrics and a constant resource.
The Principality of Monaco, a partner in the project, has several seawater HPs that draw and discharge their water from the Port Hercules basin or nearby, and is a full scale laboratory for scientific partners responsible for evaluating the impact of existing HPs.
In this project, ACRI-IN is responsible for two essential tasks:
When existing ports are saturated, and new or expansion construction is impossible, optimization of existing port bodies of water becomes the only alternative, and proves that innovation is the answer to this problem. The objective is to effectively meet the requirements of the customers and users, compromising between the constraints to optimizing an existing port and the design concepts of a new port:
Taking these elements into consideration, the choice of getting involved in research and development of alternative innovative solutions led ACRI-IN to expand on a little used idea of hybrid structures (caissons + rubble mound breakwaters). A research program aimed at sizing and installing this innovative type of buffer quay was started, extending technical progress and understanding in which ACRI-IN has actively participated for the last several years by:
This major project was the opportunity for ACRI-IN to apply its knowledge of innovative structures, and use its specifically developed digital sizing tools (RANKINE 2D among others) and its physical modeling methods. Though most wave absorbing quay projects are essentially based on the Jarlan caisson, ACRI-IN decided to direct its R&D towards innovative, alternative, more compact hybrid structures, combining the caisson idea with a porous media constituted by rubble mounds.
Our R&D work on this topic was based on two major harbor improvement projects completed by ACRI-IN since 2010:
To meet their requirements, we showed the customers our work on the topic of wave absorbing structures and offered to implement a hybrid structure for their port improvement projects.
