VADOT

FRANCE (see also List of Individuals)

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28.3.1914 Beaucourt/F - 22.10.1999 Grenoble/F

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Louis Vadot graduated from the Ecole d'Ingénieurs Mécanicien in Nancy and there submitted a PhD thesis on draft tubes as employed downstream of turbines. In 1940 he joined the furnishers of hydraulic machinery Neyret-Bélier Piccard-Pictet, the later NEYRPIC in Grenoble. The hydraulic laboratory was then directed by Pierre Danel (1902-1966). Vadot contributed to river corrections in Morocco, to computations of Kaplan turbine blades and to the novel bulb turbines as were incorporated in the 1960s to the Rance tidal power plant. He then retired because of heart problems. As a consultant his interest in wind turbines, so-called éoliennes grew and he proposed blade designs made of fiber-reinforced plastics. A 1000 kW bi-blade of 32 m of diameter was set up and successfully tested by Electricité de France EDF. However, the French national power consortium favored the nuclear power technology and Vadot's initiative was put aside. He commented: "The wind has turned".

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In the early 1960s, Vadot's friend Danel suffered from a heart decease. Vadot thus collaborated with a medical specialist to develop cardiac machinery such as blood pumps or blood exchangers for experimental surgery. Vadot submitted a thesis on human biology to Lyon University, and published various papers on the physiology of blood circulation in human bodies. He also lectured in physiology at the Faculty of Medicine of Grenoble University. In parallel, Vadot was a consultant for Société Grenobloise d'Etudes et d'Applications Hydrauliques SOGREAH, the successor company of NEYRPIC, founded in 1955. His prime interest was atmospheric pollution which he investigated with hydraulic modeling. The problems analyzed included smoke diffusion in the atmosphere by inversion, cloud insemination for artificial rainfall production and smoke propagation following accidents in chemical industries.

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_{Perroud, P. (1994). L'universalité de la mécanique des fluides en hommage à Louis Vadot. La Houille Blanche 49(5/6): 83-88. P}

_{Vadot, L. (1954). Quelques réflexions sur les pertes de charge. La Houille Blanche 9(3): 165- 178.}

_{Vadot, L. (1954). Les centrales hydro-solaires. La Houille Blanche 9(9/10): 557-568.}

_{Vadot, L. (1957). Etude synoptique des types d'éoliennes. La Houille Blanche 12(2): 189-203. Vadot, L. (1959). La production d'énergie par éoliennes. La Houille Blanche 14(1): 3-14. Vadot, L. (1966). Physiologie de la circulation cardiaque. La Houille Blanche 21(2): 121-130. Vadot, L. (1994). Réflexions sur l'histoire de la mécanique des fluides. La Houille Blanche 49(5/6): 89-94.}