About THeoREM

A network of test facilities for Hydrodynamics and Marine Renewable Energies

The collective impact of the growth in the Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) sector, the increase in demand for oceanographic instrumentation, and more generally speaking, issues related to naval and offshore sector needs; presents a new challenge: that of developing effective scientific equipment, which is able to meet the needs of research work and foster innovation.

Centrale Nantes and Ifremer are taking up this challenge by networking their hydrodynamic test facilities, to carry out research activities and collaborative projects with French and international companies. This is how THeoREM came into being.

THeoREM promotes research partnerships between academics, technical centers and industry. Companies can carry out risk-reduction by combining experimental modelling and numerical modelling, before proceeding to pre-commercialisation stage. In addition to the Marine Renewable Energy sector, our experimental resources are intended for the offshore oil and the naval sector.

Test facilities


The THeoREM network includes:
  • Centrale Nantes' ocean test facilities (3 tanks of different capacities) and its SEM-REV offshore test site,
  • Ifremer's deep water wave tank - equipped with wave and wind generators - and its Sainte-Anne-du-Portzic test station (near Brest), as well as its wave-current flume tank at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
These facilities can test oceanographic equipment and models of floating or underwater systems, and cover a wide range of applications: sea behaviour studies,  wave/wind and wave/current combined effects, performance measurements for marine renewable energies, immersion constraints, hydrodynamic structures, etc.
Published on May 31, 2018 Updated on October 26, 2022