PhD Studentship: Left in The Wake: Assessing The Impact of Sediment Mobility in The Wake of Offshore Wind Infrastructure

Project details 

This PhD scholarship is offered by the Aura Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Wind Energy and the Environment; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The project is sponsored by industry partner, The Turbidites Research Group (TRG). The successful applicant will undertake six-months of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at Loughborough University. 

This project will conduct the first experiments to resolve particle transport processes around fixed bottom offshore wind foundations in high fidelity. Further, the project will collaborate with project partner TRG in development of a globally leading computational fluid dynamics model to simulate sediment transport across a range of scales.

Numerical simulations will be based on a cutting-edge Lattice Boltzmann (LB) framework. Here experiments will act to benchmark model development. Recently this method has been demonstrated as being uniquely capable of performing highly scalable, high accuracy simulations of buoyancy driven flows at large-scale (Adekanye et al., 2022).

Project partner TRG (The Turbidites Research Group), is a Joint Industry Project run for over 30-years from the University of Leeds. It has specialised in academic-industry knowledge exchange, research and innovation on deep water sediment laden density driven flows with the global energy industry. Through the TRG, the student will have opportunity to engage with a wide range of research and industry partners, including through biannual (international) workshops.

For more information, visit the project webpage.

Supervisors 

• Dr Robert (Bobby) Houseago, Loughborough University, email: r.houseago@lboro.ac.uk
• Dr Charlie Lloyd, University of Hull
• Dr Tim Marjoribanks, Loughborough University
• Amir Khan, Turbidites Research Group (TRG)

Training and 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, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year scholarship. 

To aid learning and development of LB methods the successful student will be supported in attending an extended placement with the TRG at the University of Leeds. Moreover, the student will be afforded overseas placement opportunities.

The prospective student is supported to become an established researcher with key transferable skills for use beyond the PhD programme.

Entry requirements

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in engineering, computer science, mathematics and statistics, or physics, we would like to hear from you.

If your first language is not English, or you require Tier 4 student visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill.

Funding

The Offshore Wind CDT is funded by EPSRC, allowing us to provide scholarships for Home students that cover fees plus a stipend set at the UKRI nationally agreed rates, £19,795 per annum at 2025/26 rates (subject to progress). In addition, a number of scholarships will be made available for International students.

Contact details: Email: auracdt@hull.ac.uk

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