Infrastructure

A Zodiac is available to access the platform for up to 5 persons, with a small quantity of material.

The Zodiac Cadet 310 Alu has an electrical motor and a 12 Volt battery (66 Ah). You do not need to have a driving licence to use it. For safety reason, it is obligatory to be at least two persons, and to bring and wear life jackets at all time.

The Zodiac is parked on land in Pully Harbour, and you will need to carry it onto the water. Please do not forget to charge the battery, when you arrive at the platform.

See detailed procedures: LéXPLORE_Zodiac_internet.

The platform is composed of an external pontoon and a closed cabin. The total weight is 46 tons, and suitable for 16 persons.

The pontoon has a size of 10 m by 10 m, and is composed of four sections put together. Each section  can be all accessed by manholes. The total height of the poontoon is 1.5 m, and 0.5 m is submerged in the water. The pontoon internal area is used to store the generator, batteries, waste water tank and the fuel tank.

The cabin is composed of 2 portakabins joined together, with a total surface of 3.9 m x 5.3 m. Inside, you can find a toilet in a separate room, a moonpool, and some furniture (two tables, cupboards, under-desk pedestrials).

At the four corners, there are four winches hold the anchoring lines and four navigation lights.

The main power is generated by 28 solar pannels of 305 W (8.5 kW) that are stored in batteries. Their capacity is 2000 Ah @ 48 V (= 96 kW). It was planned to have an autonomie at full capacity during 5 days without sun.

As a safety, we have a soundproof generator of 30 kVA, that is covering the main power supply in case of failure. It will also be used for the winches maintaining the anchoring lines.

The standard  power supply available are: 230VAC (max 15A), 12VDC (max 10A), 24VDC (max 10A), 48 VDC (max 10A).

LéXPLORE platform is equipped with a toilet and washing sink. As it is very expensive to remove the wastewater, we encourage you to use the facilities in the harbour as much as possible.

The washing sink is directly connected to the wastewater tank. If you want to clean your instrument, we installed a special pipe that you can easily use.

Anchoring LéXPLORE at such a great depth was a delicate operation.
The anchoring system is composed of four 3-tons Delta-Fliper anchors, which are each tied with cables to a winch on the platform corner. They are installed at an horizontal distance of 200 m from the platform. In the north, the anchor are set at a depth of 75 m, and in the south at a depth of 140 m. The sediment slope below the platform is therefore 12°.

We have designed the anchoring system to resist to a 100 year storm, with winds of 140 km/h, significant waves of 1.5 m, and currents of 0.5 m/s. Let’s hope we will never such extreme conditions.

The safety perimeter aims at protecting the instruments from drifting nets and from the navigation.

The perimeter of 15’000 m2 is deliminated by yellow buoys at ~70 m from the platform. The 9 principal buoys are illuminated by light, and anchored to the bottom with a 2-ton weight. Between the principal buoy, 4 secondary buoys have a 50m long cable hanging below them.

The whole structure is like a protecting curtain, where we can safely deploy scientific equipment. In consequence, this perimeter is an important part of LéXPLORE infrastructure for in-situ measurements.