PhD Studentship: Innovative decommissioning for offshore foundation systems

Supervisor(s)

1) Dr Majid Bastankhah, Durham University

2) Professor Simon Hogg, Durham University

3) Jacob Burrows, EDF UK R&D (Leading Researcher)

4) Christophe Peyrard, EDF R&D (France, floating offshore wind expert)

Enquiries email

auracdt@hull.ac.uk

This project is offered through the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience and EDF UK R&D. The CDT is a partnership between Hull, Durham, Loughborough and Sheffield universities, along with over 40 industry partners. We will welcome over 65 funded doctoral researchers between 2024 and 2028. Join us to tackle some of the biggest research challenges, in a supportive environment where you can grow your own career while you help grow the offshore wind industry.

This research project proposal specifically targets floating offshore wind energy, which is a developing market. As such, there are challenges and hurdles to overcome and uncertainties to deal with before widespread commercialisation and technological diffusion is realised. Conversely, this means there are plenty of opportunities for researchers and innovators to positively impact the growth trajectory of floating offshore wind.

Unlike fixed-bottom turbines, floating wind turbines are free to move along all 6 degrees of freedom (x, y, z translations, and roll, pitch, yaw rotations). This freedom of movement adds uncertainty when describing and modelling interactions between wind flows and turbines and affects a variety of wind energy applications. These uncertainties, errors and biases add cost, negatively affecting the competitiveness and viability of floating offshore wind technology.

This project represents an opportunity for novel research contributions to be made towards solving a problem set tangibly affecting the floating wind market today, with real potential for advancing the state of the art and for helping to shape industry consensus on modelling and describing wind flow interactions with floating wind turbines. The ask is for the research engineer to engage with as many affected wind energy applications as is practical and realistic, and to work towards identifying, quantifying and reducing uncertainties in the analytical outputs driven by controlled and uncontrolled motion of floating wind turbines.

Training & Skills:

Depending on prior experience, you will be trained to use numerical packages (e.g., Matlab and Python). Further project-specific training will be defined when developing your training and self-development plan. The student will also have access to training courses and programmes provided by EDF which cover a diverse range of technical and soft skills.

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull for the new student, drawing on the expertise and facilities of our academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

Eligibility requirements

If you have received or expect to achieve before starting your PhD programme a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level a degree (or the international equivalents) in Engineering, Environmental Science, Mathematics and Statistics or Physics, we would like to hear from you.

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