CUÉNOD M

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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13.9.1918 La Seyne/F - 3.4.1987 Genève/CH

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Michel Cuénod was born into a family of engineers: His grandfather designed the hydropower plant of Chèvres at the Swiss-Franco border on Rhone River and was one of the founders of the Group Atéliers de Sécheron in Geneva in 1879. In 1930, the family settled in Geneva and Michel graduated in 1942 as an electrical engineer from ETH Zurich. He spent the following ten years with Brown Boveri BBC in Baden close to Zurich and there developed into an expert of stability analysis of hydroelectricity. In 1950, Cuénod returned to Geneva and there first collaborated with Société Générale pour l'Industrie SGI thereby participating in the pumping power plants Vianden in Luxemburg, and Gondo in Wallis Canton. After a two years' stay in the USA, Cuénod returned to SGI and collaborated for a concrete factory in Libya from 1967, and from 1979 was engaged in the Karakaya hydropower scheme in Turkey. From 1982, Cuénod was a Lecturer in hydraulics at the Middle-East University in Ankara. When returning to Switzerland, he became an expert in the thermodynamics of buildings and collaborated with both the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, and Geneva Canton. After a final return to the Atatürk hydropower scheme in Turkey, he retired in 1986. After his death, the IFAC Michel Cuénod Fund was established allowing for professional education to scientists and engineers in developing countries.

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Cuénod's research activities were particularly in the regulation of hydraulic processes as occur in hydropower schemes. He thereby collaborated also with André Gardel (1922-), an expert in hydraulic structures until the 1960s and a professor at EPFL Lausanne. The latter investigated in the 1960s similar processes for a hydropower plant in Switzerland thereby conducting in-situ observations on the Simmenfluh Dam.

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_{Anonymous (1987). Michel Cuénod. Ingénieurs et Architectes Suisses 113(10): B70. Cuénod, J. (2004). Michel Cuénod. Personal communication. P}

_{Cuénod, M. (1949). Influence des phénomènes de coup de bélier sur le réglage de la vitesse des turbines hydrauliques. La Houille Blanche 4(3/4): 163-182.}

_{Cuénod, M. (1951). La détermination du moment d'inertie de groupe hydro-électrique. La Houille Blanche 6(3/4): 132-146.}

_{Cuénod, M., Gardel, A. (1954). Nouveau procédé pour la stabilisation de la marche de centrales hydro-électriques avec chambre d'équilibre. La Houille Blanche 9(6): 352-359.}

_{Cuénod, M., Maier, F. (1964). Verbundbetrieb von thermischen und hydraulischen Kraftwerken unter Berücksichtigung ihrer Regelfähigkeit. Brennstoff-Wärme-Kraft 16(6): 277-283.}