Marinelle El Khoury prepared her GeM thesis at Ecole Centrale de Nantes under the supervision of Professors Frédéric Grondin and Emmanuel Rozière, in cotutelle with the Lebanese University under the supervision of Professor Fadi Hage Chehade and Dr Rachid Cortas.
The Centrale Innovation 2023 thesis prize was awarded to her on November 21, during the company’s 30th anniversary celebrations in Ecully.
Her thesis work focused on the development of a creep assessment protocol for subsea structures: design of a multi-scale model and a chemo-mechanical experimental set-up.
Long-term management of offshore structures requires innovative experimental protocols and numerical models capable of predicting their reliability over long periods. These aspects are the main objectives assigned to this thesis, and present not only a challenge in the field of cementitious materials durability and environmental protection, but also significant industrial and socio-economic impacts.
Each year, Centrale Innovation awards a prize for the best thesis carried out in connection with industry in one of the laboratories of one of the subsidiary’s shareholder schools.
The aim of this prize is to recognize the best research work carried out as part of a doctorate. The two selection criteria are as follows:
- Contribution to a significant advance in research, for example by exploring paths likely to lead to technological and conceptual breakthroughs, and by providing a step forward for industry (technology transfer),
- Impact of thesis work on the ODD.