This platform based in Rouen is used to carry out experiments into geotechnical structures and road or railway infrastructure. Its core competencies are full-scale physical modelling, experimental setups and instrumentation. Extensive experience in the road, railway and earthwork fields, means that it can address a wide variety of topics related to geotechnics.
Service offering
This platform, unique in France, allows full-scale experiments to be carried out on structures, and measuring devices and innovative materials to be validated. These services can be provided in the fields of roads, railways, the environment (resource saving, recovery, noise pollution and sustainability), natural hazards (landslides and falling blocks), hydraulic and climate risks, earthworks and in tests on geotextiles (certification and structures).
Examples of recent services:
-
Characterization of the compactness of railway ballast by seismic and acoustic methods
-
Development of a mechanical tool for measuring the compactness of railway ballast
-
Optimization of means of auscultation of airfield pavements
-
Development of an optical sensor to assess the sustainability of aeronautical pavements
-
Development of a test to characterize the puncture resistance of port
-
Study of a modern road structural auscultation tool
-
Participation in the development of a continuous autonomous train for surveying the structural condition of tracks
-
Creation of a test structure for large linear monitoring of a gas pipeline in frozen ground
-
Evaluation of a portable means of auscultation of the bearing capacity of airfields in conflict zones
-
Mooring instrumentation for monitoring the behaviour of docked vessels
-
Participation in the development of an innovative structure for adjusting the gauge of old railway tunnels.
Human and hardware resources
Physical resources
-
4000m² indoor area for building full-scale structures with three test pits
-
5 hectares of dedicated sites for building full-scale structures
-
Equipment for applying stress to structures and testing them:
-
hydraulic rams and units (up to 100 tons or 35 Hz)
-
mobile dynamic loading gantry,
-
fatigue system of railways
-
-
Unique auscultation methods.
-
Operating and handling equipment.
-
Sensors and measurement units.
-
A laboratory for standardized tests on geosynthetics.
-
Large-scale equipment to characterize coarse soils.
Human resources
-
12 permanent staff (3 project managers, 5 chief engineers and 4 technicians).
References and clients
Expert assessment for local authorities and companies
-
Dynamic behaviour of ballasted tracks (SNCF)
-
Behaviour of a track on innovative slabs (Colas Rail)
-
Behaviour of a railway track ballasted on a gravel-bitumen mixture (Vinci)
-
Mock-up for developing means of monitoring dykes under pressure, dykes subjected to localized collapse, damage to optical fibres laid in trenches (EDF)
-
Procedure for making clay plugs for storage cells, qualification of optical fibres for the detection and localization of ground motion (Andra)
-
Study of bund walls, ground/plough demining interaction (DGA).
-
Monitoring the behaviour of a diaphragm wall, vibratory expertise (large seaports)
National research projects
-
Funding sources for research and other actions (UGE, CSTB, BRGM, Ineris, Railenium, Asqual…)
International research projects
-
INNOTRACK: developing the demo of a railway load-bearing capacity measurement system
-
SAFER: level crossing safety
You have a question ?