GRIDEL

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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26.12.1903 Sens/F - 5.2.1970 Paris/F

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Henri Gridel graduated in 1927 from the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures ECP, Paris and submitted a PhD thesis to the University of Paris. He then joined Société Nantaise d'Electricité and in the early 1930s moved to Syria, then a French possession. Gridel joined Société Hydrotechnique de France SHF in 1938 with works both in France and in South America. He directed from 1946 to 1962 the Laboratoire National d'Hydraulique in Chatou, to be then appointed vice-director of Etudes et Recherches of Electricité de France EDF, where his knowledge in hydropower engineering was of value. Gridel was a hydraulics professor at ECP from 1944. He was awarded in 1954 Cavalier of Légion d'Honneur, Officer of the Black Star and the Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil, and Cavalier of the Maritime Merit.

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After World War II France was a leading country in hydraulic engineering, particularly because of a number of outstanding hydraulic laboratories, including the Chatou laboratory of Electricité de France EDF. Gridel, a specialist in maritime hydraulics with a PhD thesis in this topic, combined with a large expertise in practice was the right person to lead the largest hydraulic institution of a country with an enormous hydropower potential. For the next 20 years, France developed these resources extensively but since the mid 1960s was strongly involved with nuclear power stations. Henri Gridel, together with his colleague André Nizéry (1907-1954), was at the forefront of these developments for the Chatou hydraulic laboratory at River Seine, West of Paris. The main research topics were hydropower generation, dam engineering, fluvial engineering with a notable contribution to pier scour, and maritime hydraulics.

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_{Anonymous (1963). Henri Gridel. Nouveau dictionnaire national des contemporains 2: 305.}

_{Robin: Paris. P}

_{Anonymous (1969). Henri Gridel. La Houille Blanche 24(8): 795. P}

_{Anonymous (1971). Henri Gridel (1927). Arts et Manufactures (219): 24.}

_{Gridel, H. (1942). De l'emploi des modèles réduits pour l'étude des effets de la houle. PhD thesis. University: Paris.}

_{Gridel, H. (1946). Phénomènes de propagation de la houle. Annales des Ponts et Chaussées}

_{116(1/2): 77-105; 116(5/6): 330-351.}

_{Gridel, H. (1951). La mesure précise des niveaux. 4 IAHR Congress Bombay (38): 707-718. Gridel, H. (1955). Le Laboratoire National d'Hydraulique. Travaux Supplément 39: 155-160. Tison, L.J. (1970). Henri Gridel 1903-1970. Bulletin IAHS 15(3): 178.}