GIBRAT

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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23.3.1904 Lorient/F - 13.5.1980 Paris/F

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Robert Gibrat graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines ENSMP in Paris and obtained a doctorate in law some years later. He continued as a private consultant by collaborating with Société Générale d'Entreprises and Compagnie Générale de Géophysique. From 1936 to 1968 he was a professor of industrial electricity at ENSMP. From 1945 he acted as an expert for Electricité de France EDF in tidal power plants and was appointed in 1955 director of Groupement Industrie Atomique INDATOM presiding in 1962 and 1963 the French scientific and technical committees of EURATOM. He presided in 1966 over Société des Ingénieurs Civils de France and the technical committee of Société Hydrotechnique de France SHF. From 1968 Gibrat was a vicepresident of both Société Météorologique de France SMF and Fédération Mondiale des Organisations d'Ingénieurs FMOI.

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Tidal power plants are so far only working in France: Robert Gibrat was the designer of the Rance scheme and demonstrated that this type of energy may be used for electrical power production. After almost 40 years, this chapter in the development of alternative energies is not at all completed, yet no definite initiatives were made to improve Gibrat's idea. The reasons may be diverse, but relate to site conditions, economy and maintenance. This scheme is located at a bay on the French Atlantic Coast close to St. Malo and produces hydropower with the tidal differences between the sea and the bay levels, respectively, with 24 bulb turbines of an average of almost 10 m. The particular hydraulic problems with which Gibrat was encountered include mainly the development of large and efficient axial turbines and numerical computations of estuarine currents.

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_{Anonymous (1955). Robert Gibrat, Ingénieur en chef des Mines, Ingénieur-Conseil, Professeur à l'Ecole des Mines à Paris. 5 ICOLD Congress Paris 1: 101. P}

_{Anonymous (1980). Robert Gibrat. La Houille Blanche 35(1/2): 149.}

_{Anonymous (2004). Robert Gibrat. Personal communication. Ecole Polytechnique. P Blémont, H. (1982). Gibrat, R. Dictionnaire de biographie française 15: 1465. Letouzey: Paris. Gibrat, R. (1955). Les usines marémotrices. Brochure: Paris.}

_{Gibrat, R. (1955). Exploitation des usines marémotrices. La Houille Blanche 10(A): 275-282. Gibrat, R. (1962). Source de l'énergie des marées. La Houille Blanche 17(2): 255-266. Gibrat, R. (1966). L'énergie des marées. Presses Universitaires de France: Paris.}

_{Gibrat, R. (1971). Les mathématiques modernes, les ingénieurs et l'avenir de l'homme. 3rd Symp. The predicament of man 2: 5-16, M. Goldsmith, ed. Science Policy Foundation: London.}