Le transport par voie maritime s’est développé très rapidement durant la dernière décennie. Il constitue la solution idéale pour déplacer à faibles coûts d’importantes quantités de marchandises sur de longues distances. L’accroissement de ces échanges entraine inévitablement une augmentation de la fréquentation des routes maritimes, de la densité du trafic et donc du risque d’accident et de naufrage.Les quantités impliquées lors d’un accident étant importantes, un rejet sous-marin de produit chimique issu d’une épave peut provoquer de graves conséquences environnementales et humaines. Or, les mécanismes physico-chimiques apparaissant lors du transfert du produit à la surface sont encore mal compris. Ces mécanismes dépendent de nombreux paramètres dont les propriétés physico-chimiques intrinsèques au produit et celles propres à l’environnement de l’accident.Ce travail de recherche, réalisé en collaboration entre l’Ecole des Mines d’Alès et le Cedre, s’inscrit dans l’amélioration de la compréhension du comportement d’un rejet de produit chimique liquide, flottant et soluble issu d’une épave. Cette étude expérimentale a été réalisée selon 3 points :- La phénoménologie du rejet à la brèche dont l’objectif est de quantifier le débit et les modes de rejet,- Le comportement hydrodynamique du produit libéré et son évolution lors de la remontée dans la colonne d’eau,- Le transfert de matière du produit lors de sa solubilisation dans la colonne d’eau.Pour chaque point, les résultats obtenus sont comparés à ceux prédits par les corrélations disponibles dans la littérature afin de proposer une modélisation globale des conséquences adaptée à la gestion des pollutions marines. / Maritime transport quickly increases during the last decade. It is the cheapest way to transport large quantities of goods over long distances. The growth of this trade necessarily leads to an increase in the traffic density and therefore the risk of accident and sinking increases as well.The large amount of chemicals involved in an accident may threaten the environment and human health in case of shipwreck with underwater chemical release. Unfortunately the physicochemical mechanisms occurring during the transfer of a chemical to the sea surface are still poorly understood. Those mechanisms depend on various parameters such as the physicochemical properties of the chemicals and the specific properties of the accident surroundings. This research was conducted in collaboration with the Ecole des Mines d'Alès and Cedre in a global approach to understand the behaviour of liquid, floating and soluble chemicals released after a shipwreck. This experimental study has been carried out according to 3 main points:- The phenomenology of a release at the breach. The objectives are to quantify the flow rate and the release pattern,- The hydrodynamic behaviour of the released chemicals and their fate in the water column,- The mass transfer of the chemical during its solubilization in the water column.For each point, the results are compared to those predicted by correlations in the literature in order to propose a global model of consequences that is adapted to the marine pollution management.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) modulation is being advanced as the physical-layer basis for Seaweb undersea acoustic networking. DSSS meets the need for channel tolerance, transmission security, and multi-user access. This thesis investigates the performance of subspace-decomposition blind-equalization algorithms as alternatives to RAKE processing of DSSS signals. This approach is tailored for superior performance in time-dispersive and frequency-dispersive channels characteristic of ocean acoustic propagation. Transmitter and receiver structures are implemented in Matlab and evaluated with a statistics-based model of a doubly spread channel with additive noise. Receiver performance is examined using Monte Carlo simulation. Biterror rates versus signal-to-noise ratio are presented for various multipath assumptions, noise assumptions, and receiver synchronization assumptions. / Lieutenant, Hellenic Navy

The objective of this project was to determine if the electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions from undersea power cables impacted the local and transient marine life, with an emphasis on reef fishes. The work was done at South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility of Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, Broward County, Florida. This facility functions as the hub for a range of active undersea detection and data transmission cables. It has multiple active submarine power cables that extend several miles offshore and which can deliver power and enable data transmission to and from a range of acoustic and EMF sensors. The cables lie directly on the seabed, are buried in the sand, or are suspended in the water column. EMF emissions from a selected cable were created during SCUBA fish surveys. During the surveys the transmission of either alternating current (AC) or Direct Current (DC) was randomly intiated by the facility with no transmitted current (OFF) provided a control. The surveys were conducted using standardized transect and stationary point count methods to acquire reef fish abundances prior to and immediately after a change in transmission frequency (the divers were aware of the time of frequency change but not the specific frequencies). The divers were also tasked to note the reaction of the reef fishes to the immediate change in the EMFs emitting from the cable during a power switch. The surveys were conducted on a quarterly basis at three sampling sites offshore on the same cable. These sites were in water depths of approximately 5, 10, and 15 m, respectively and were selected based on their robust reef fish community and are representative of each of the three primary hardbottom coral reef habitats in the local offshore environment: the Inner (Shallow), Middle, and Outer (Deep) reef tracts. A total of 263 surveys were conducted: 132 transect-counts and 131 point-counts over 15 months. There were 24,473 fishes counted during transect-count surveys and with point-counts, 36,115 fishes were counted. With count types and sites combine a total of 151 species representing 35 families were recorded. An analysis of the data primarily did not find statistical differences among power states and any variables. However, this may be a Type II error as there are strong indications of a potential difference of a higher abundance of reef fishes at the sites when the power was off. There are a number of caveats to consider with this finding: the data set needs to be larger in terms of numbers of: counts, sites and eletro-sensitive species to allow for rigorous statistical analysis; also a longer time between frequency changes to allow for slower, but nonetheless important, reactions to differing EMFs might lead to differing conclusions. Obviously, more research is required to confirm the results of this study.