François Lempérière (born 9 October 1926) is a French

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

who built and/or designed 15

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

in France and other countries. He invented solutions such as Fusegates, Piano Keys Weir, Twin Dams and Tidal Gardens. He received his education at Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Biography

François Lempérière has been a contractor along 40 years in GTM (Grands travaux de Marseille, later GTM Entrepose) where he was in charge from 1960 to 1985 of building large structures in rivers (

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

Zambezi The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

) (such as the Cabora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi) or at sea as the Saint-Nazaire Dry Dock in France where have been built the largest world tankers and ships. He was also involved in highways, canals and nuclear plants. He was Chairman of GTM International and after 1982 Deputy General Manager of GTM Entrepose. François Lempérière has patented 3 inventions for GTM Entrepose and its subsidiary Hydroplus. Since 1976, he has been member of 5 Technical Committees of ICOLD, the International Commission on Large Dams, vice-Chairman of the Committee on Technology of Construction, and Chairman of the Committee on Cost of Dams. He drafted 8 ICOLD Bulletins about dams construction methods, costs and cost savings . He has been Chairman (1991-1995) of the French Committee on Large Dams now CFBR. In 1997, he has founded with Pierre Londe the not profit International Association “HydroCoop”, which gives free advices especially on floods and dams, hydraulic and tidal energy and energy storage.

Commitment

Floods control during dams construction

F. Lempérière proposed innovative solutions for managing floods during dams construction.

Spillways for dams in operation

F. Lempérière has proposed 4 innovative solutions for the dams spillways. The solutions have applied to new dams or existing ones. - In 1989 the “Fusegates” used for 70 dams in over 10 countries with fuse elements up to 8 m high and floods up to 20 000 m3/s. - In 2003 with A. Ouamane the “Piano Keys Weirs”, a more efficient labyrinth shape of spillways used for 30 dams in 10 countries. - In 2008, the Concrete Fuse Plugs. - In 2014, with A. Ouamane an innovative association of above optimized structures which increases fivefold the discharge of a traditional free flow spillway.

Tidal energy

F. Lempérière has been involved in studies of

tidal power Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. T ...

plants since 1975 (GEDEM for

Électricité de France Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...

). In 2014, he proposed an Innovative Solution, the “Tidal Gardens” which may extend the utilization of tidal energy beyond areas of very high tides. This solution has been studied by Electricité de France and presented to ICOLD Congress in 2015 and to ICOLD Awards in 2018.

Renewable energy and energy storage

Since 2009, F. Lempérière has presented various studies of the world energy problems and proposed two innovative solutions for energy storage: - “Twin Dams” associating two dams along a large river. - “Emerald Lakes” creating dams at sea along a cliff. F. Lempérière also proposed solutions for early reduction of fossil and nuclear energy.

Awards

In 1996, F. Lempérière was awarded by the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. In the ICOLD congress of 2018, he received a special ICOLD Award for a “Life time Achievement”.

References

External links

* http://www.hydrocoop.org, the website of the nonprofit Organization HydroCoop {{DEFAULTSORT:Lempérière, François French civil engineers École Polytechnique alumni École des Ponts ParisTech alumni 1926 births Living people