Postgraduate research opportunities Accelerating the UK Offshore Wind Development by Design for Manufacturability

While the offshore wind sector has seen encouraging success in its early stages, a significant upscale is necessary to meet energy transition targets. In the UK, the goal is to increase offshore wind capacity to 50 GW by 2030, with at least 5 GW in the form of floating wind in deeper seas. Given a rated power of 15 MW per turbine and a one-turbine-one-platform strategy, achieving the 50 GW target involves developing over 3000 offshore installations and manufacturing numerous structural components.

An example of such components is the tubular structures of floating wind platforms, such as buoyancy tanks, which are crucial for providing buoyancy forces and ensuring hydrostatic stability. Conventional designs for these large-diameter offshore tubular structures involve internally welded ring-stiffened tubular shells. However, this design has three significant disadvantages:

• Complex and time-consuming welding processes.
• Significant defects due to welding.
• Challenging in-service inspection due to restricted internal accessibility.

While these disadvantages may be tolerable for one-off bespoke installations, the demand for volume production necessitates a radical rethink of how these components are designed and manufactured. Collaboration between designers and manufacturers, following the Design for Manufacturability (DFM) philosophy, is crucial to ensure that designs are not only structurally robust but also suitable for cost-effective volume production.

Within this context, this project aims to develop an alternative tubular structural design with enhanced manufacturability for application to floating offshore wind. The key objectives include:

• Concept development for offshore tubular structures.
• Identification of performance metrics and constraints.
• Structural design optimisation for manufacturability.
• Design demonstration and verification.
• Development of a route-to-certification.

Further information

The studentship is due to commence in October 2024.