Offshore Wind: Challenges and Opportunities

In this SECED Young Members event, challenges and opportunities for offshore wind will be presented by three engineers currently working in this field.

Dr Christelle Abadie: Prediction of the Cyclic Performances of Offshore Wind Turbine Monopiles: Recent Progress and Challenges

Methods used for the design of foundations have improved massively, enabling significant and robust optimisation of geometry. To further improve the design, prediction of the accumulated  deformations over the operational life must be improved in the next generation of design methods. In addition, development of offshore wind farms in seismic zones requires consideration of cyclic dynamic earthquake-induced loads. This talk will cover recent research developments on two aspects of the cyclic response of offshore wind turbine foundations: (i) the prediction of the response to long-term quasi-static cyclic lateral loading, caused by the repeated action of wind and waves on the mast over the entire lifetime of the wind turbine; and (ii) the response to short-term earthquake-induced dynamic cyclic loads.

Dr Christelle Abadie is a lecturer in civil engineering at the University of Cambridge, specialising on the design of foundations for offshore wind applications. She holds an Engineering degree from the French “Grandes Ecoles” ENSTA ParisTech, and a D.Phil from the University of Oxford. During her PhD, she studied the response of monopile foundations to long-term cyclic lateral loading, and continued studying offshore wind monopiles through a PDRA at Oxford, working on the PISA2 project (Pile Soil Analysis).

Dr Chris Pearce: Prediction of fatigue loads in offshore wind turbines on monopile foundations using tower-top accelerometers

It is often necessary to monitor the fatigue loads experienced by existing offshore wind turbines. This may be to assess the effects of a change in circumstances, such as a change to the turbine’s control system, or may be to estimate the remaining fatigue life of the structure as a result of a defect. Gaining an understanding of the remaining fatigue lives of turbines and support structures is also of increasing importance as wind farm operators look to extend the operational lives of the farms. Such load monitoring is conventionally performed using strain gauge monitoring systems, which can be costly to install, and can suffer from reliability issues. This presentation will describe work undertaken by Atkins for a major offshore wind farm operator, on an alternative approach to load monitoring, based on pre-existing accelerometers located in the turbine’s nacelle.

Dr Chris Pearce is a Principal Engineer in the Design & Advanced Technology practice of Atkins’ Infrastructure division. After completing his PhD in Engineering at the University of Exeter, he joined Atkins to work as a consulting engineer from 2014. He has experience in structural design and structural integrity assessments, primarily in the offshore wind and nuclear sectors. His professional interests include structural dynamics, design for strength and fatigue, simulation, and design automation.

Dr David Wilkie: Fatigue reliability of offshore wind turbines using Gaussian Process regression

The analysis of offshore wind turbines is challenging. It typically relies on the repetition of a computationally demanding time-domain structural model. Estimating fatigue damage is vital for these structures. Still, this form of damage is cumulative and requires analysis of the environmental conditions the wind turbine is expected to experience over its operational life. In this work we apply Gaussian process (GP) regression to the problem of estimating fatigue damage. The GP model allows estimation of the probability of structural failure for performance-based design or code calibration. It also enables evaluations that would not be possible using only time-domain simulation, such as evaluating the potential impact of climate change on structural responses.

Dr David Wilkie is an EPSRC doctoral prize research fellow at UCL focused on the reliability analysis of offshore wind turbines. He completed a PhD at UCL and worked as a structural integrity engineer for Oil & Gas industry.

Registration

The event is open to all and is free to attend. Please join the meeting via Teams^* by clicking on this link. No registration is required.

Further information

This online meeting is organised by Young SECED. For further information, please contact Fiona Hughes (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

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