Integrated Master-PhD Track | Marine Technology

The Integrated Master-PhD Track is available in Marine Technology.

Students on the track will be assigned to the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA) with supervision from a member of faculty. It is within LHEEA Laboratory that the students on this track would naturally progress towards funded PhD studies, subject to successful completion of the Master's degree, final acceptance by the ad hoc committee and the award of a PhD grant.

Course Content

 

• Students following the Integrated Master-PhD Track follow the same courses as for the Master's specialism - Hydrodynamics for Ocean Engineering.
• During their Master's programme they will have the opportunity to explore potential PhD subjects by getting involved in research projects. 
• Subject to successful completion of the Master's degree, to final acceptance by the ad hoc committee and to the award of a PhD grant, students on this track would naturally progress towards funded PhD studies, in the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment. Students are, of course, also free to pursue other avenues in academia or industry.
• During the three PhD years, students will follow a minimum of 100 hours of scientific and interdisciplinary courses. Some of the courses are compulsory, others may be recommended according to the scientific field or selected on a free choice basis. Learn more

Research environment

This programme relies on Centrale Nantes’ faculty and the research facilities of the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA).

About the LHEEA Laboratory

The LHEEA is working on advancing theoretical knowledge and resolving concrete problems in four main areas: ocean engineering, marine and urban atmospheric flows, thermodynamics of energy systems, and hydrodynamics for health. Its research activities are focused on addressing strong societal and technological challenges:
 

• Performance of renewable energy production systems: (MRE - offshore wind, tidal and wave energy, etc.) and onshore wind energy,
• Human and environmental safety for maritime activities,
• Reduction of polluting emissions associated with ground and maritime transport,
• Quality of the urban atmosphere,
• Cardiovascular pathologies

Major research projects

Examples of major research projects currently underway:

 

• Sealhyfe, the world's first offshore hydrogen production test platform
  Sealhyfe is connected to the SEM-REV electrical hub on Centrale Nantes' offshore test site, operated by the Open-C Foundation.
  Lhyfe's offshore hydrogen production test platform has been producing its first kilos of offshore hydrogen since June 2023, - a decisive milestone for the future of the sector.
  • Learn more
• Bureau Veritas - Centrale Nantes International chair in Hydrodynamics and Marine Structures | 2016-2026
  In 2016, Centrale Nantes and Bureau Veritas established an international research chair on ships of the future, in partnership with HydrOcean and Nextflow Software. The involvement of these four partners in the chair is designed to foster the emergence of technological innovation with regards to the concept, design and performance of ships and marine structures, environmental protection and safety standards, reduced fuel consumption.
  • Learn more
• WASANO | 2022-2025
  WASANO is a NExT IRP (International Research Partnership) project bringing together 14 world-renowned universities and four industrial partners.
  One of the biggest challenges in MRE today is taking account of extreme conditions in the design of marine structures. The WASANO project addresses the problem of accurate, controlled description of environmental conditions in ocean engineering. To overcome the many scientific hurdles identified, the project will propose innovative methods to define the sea states responsible for extreme responses of offshore structures and reproduce these sea states in wave tanks. This reproduction will be carried out jointly using numerical simulations and reduced-scale experiments in Centrale Nantes' ocean engineering tanks.
  • Learn more

Research facilities

Facilities in the LHEEA Laboratory include large-scale research facilities for ocean engineering, for example:

Hydrodynamic and ocean engineering tank

50 m long by 30 m wide and 5 m deep, this tank is used for small-scale physical simulation of floating systems, navigating or anchored in open seas (ships, MRE systems or oil platforms). Due to its size and generation capacity, it is currently the largest tank in France for this type of study.

• Learn more

Towing tank

The towing tank at Centrale Nantes is the second largest in France, the largest in an academic setting. The tank is used to test the resistance of ships to forward motion, with or without swell, and therefore to optimise hulls, the seaworthiness of ships or floating structures, cable towing, and also marine renewable energy.

• Learn more 

PhD Opportunities

40 PhDs are currently underway within the LHEEA Laboratory, for example:
 

• Direct Numerical Simulation of transitional flow around marine propeller blades
• Experimental and numerical investigation of extreme wave statistics
• Numerical modeling of floating wind turbine in the presence of severe sea conditions with OpenFOAM
• Extreme wave response of large marine structures

View the full list of PhD theses completed in the LHEEA Laboratory.

What our graduates say

Liad Paskin

PhD, Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA)
Master of Science (MSc) Marine Technology | Hydrodynamics for Ocean Engineering
Founder & CEO of deepmath solutions
 

Video Transcript 

My PhD Story - by Liad, Master M-Tech HOE, PhD LHEEA Laboratory

Hello I'm Liad. I'm coming from Brazil and I'm doing this hydrodynamics stuff for over ten years, almost all of it in research. It's been some eight years that I'm in Nantes. I came here for my Master's, then followed by a PhD and a post-doc and now I open a company. And for this whole time I've been in Centrale Nantes. 

Why did you decide to come to Centrale Nantes?  

Once I decided to come to France, Centrale Nantes was a bit of a straightforward choice because it's surely the best, or one of the best, universities in France on the subject of hydrodynamics. 

How was the programme? 

It's divided into two years. The first one is like a general one; we're studying general engineering and then we specialise in hydrodynamics. What I did like very much about this programme is all the applied part of it it's very much applied - we're all the time talking about industry and how we can use our knowledge to bring something to industry, and this was nice. 

When and why did you decide to pursue your PhD here? 

That was always the objective and I came to Nantes to do my Master's thesis already thinking about my PhD. So, that was not much of a decision once I was already here.

What was the subject of your PhD? 

I've been studying wind-waves interaction, notably to know to how the waves can affect the wind - actually how it could affect the energy generation of a wind turbine. I think what makes the hydrodynamics research here so good is that we really do have all the support - like experimental and numerical support - that we need for our research. So, that includes a big and a smaller wave tank besides a real-scale facility in the sea and, of course, our computers since I do so much numerical work. 

What are you doing now? 

Recently, we just opened our start-up. We've been incubated in the Centrale-Audencia-ENSA (incubator) since March. We're offering mathematical services and tools. So, on one side, we're selling services to the wind energy industry to help them achieve competitiveness offshore and, on the other side, we're developing cutting-edge technology for engineering simulation. 

Any advice for future applicants for the integrated Master-PhD track?

I think it's amazing because this is what I came here for, but the track didn't exist at the time. So, I basically had to do my master's thesis and find my PhD and it worked out as I planned, but maybe it wouldn't have. Also, it's really nice if you can have some time during your Master's to already get to know your PhD subject because three years is not that much for a new research field. And that gives you a good transition time. 

Centrale Nantes in 3 words? 

Cutting-Edge, International, Exchange

 

Meet the Programme Coordinator

Guillaume Ducrozet obtained his PhD at Centrale Nantes in 2007, and then occupied different post-doctoral positions, notably at DTU in 2009. He returned to Centrale Nantes in 2010 as an Associate Professor in Ocean Engineering in the LHEEA Laboratory, of which he has been the deputy director since 2022.

His research interests include: Free-surface hydrodynamics; Nonlinear ocean waves; Numerical modelling; Pseudo-spectral methods (HOS); Rogue/freak waves; Wave-structure interactions; Experimental hydrodynamics. He is the main developer of the open-source High-Order Spectral models HOS-ocean and HOS-NWT. He has authored 45+ publications in ISI peer-reviewed international journals.

There is no need to apply for the track before arriving at Centrale Nantes for your Master's programme. Your choice will be taken into account during the first year of the Master's programme so as to orient your laboratory research activities and the choice of elective modules towards the PhD thesis subject.