Numerical and wind tunnel modelling of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

DoS Richard Pemberton (Richard.Pemberton@plymouth.ac.uk)

2^nd Supervisor Deborah Greaves (Deborah.Greaves@plymouth.ac.uk)

3^rd Supervisor Scott Brown (Scott.Brown@plymouth.ac.uk)

4^th Supervisor  Alistair Borthwick (Alistair.Borthwick@plymouth.ac.uk)

5^th Supervisor Adam Kyte (Adam.Kyte@plymouth.ac.uk)

Applications are invited for a three-year PhD studentship. The studentship will start on 1 October 2022 or 1 January 2023.

Project Description

Development of offshore renewable energy is a key part of the Government’s Net Zero and Energy Security strategies with ambitious targets of 50GW offshore wind by 2030, including 5GW floating offshore wind (FOW), and 100- 140GW by 2050. However, the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) of floating offshore wind is still high compared with fixed foundation offshore wind. Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are exposed to harsh and complex conditions in the marine environment and it is important that at the design stage, potential extreme environmental loads on FOWTs under storms, are clearly identified and quantified.

In existing design and analysis procedures for floating offshore wind, calculations for the aerodynamics of the turbine, the hydrodynamics of the floater and mooring system, and stress analysis of the structure are often carried out separately, using software tools of varying fidelity, potentially leading to inconsistency between results and inefficiencies in the design process. The successful candidate will join a team of researchers developing a high-fidelity coupled hydro-aero-structural numerical tool for FOWT, with coupled interfaces between solvers to include full physics and efficient parallel implementation. Small and large-scale experiments on single and multiple actuated wind turbines will be carried out to develop a physical database of flow and mechanical characteristics. The large-scale experiments will provide high resolution measurements of flow fields and smaller scale experiments, using new facilities planned for the new engineering building on UoP campus will allow for a wider exploration of the parameter space across layout and flow-direction with a focus on turbine level loads and wakes across arrays of 2 or 3 turbines. Blade resolved numerical turbine models for reference turbines will be developed using open source CFD code and predictions of wake recovery and turbine loads compared with simplified models, such as actuator disc and actuator line. Numerical model results will be validated using the experiment data.

Supported by an industry partner, the aim of this PhD studentship is to develop and validate using small and large scale wind tunnel experiments high and mid-fidelity numerical tools for investigating multi turbine interaction with the aim of using them to improve wake models for floating offshore wind farms.

Eligibility

Please view here for entry requirements and funding details.

If you wish to discuss this project further informally, please contact Deborah Greaves, Deborah.Greaves@plymouth.ac.uk

To apply for this position please visit here .

Please clearly state the name of the DoS and studentship title that you are applying for on your personal statement.

Please see here for a list of supporting documents to upload with your application.

For more information on the admissions process generally, please contact doctoralcollege@plymouth.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on 29 August 2022. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview shortly after the deadline. We regret that we may not be able to respond to all applications.  Applicants who have not received a response within six weeks of the closing date should consider their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

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