Offshore renewable energy (ORE) foundations on rock seabeds: advancing design through analogue testing and modelling

About the project

This project aims to advance the understanding and design of foundation systems on rock seabeds, to support the necessary expansion of offshore renewables energy (ORE), such as wind turbines or wave energy converters. The project will develop new analysis techniques, inspired by new approaches for experimental testing of small-scale foundation models installed in rock material.

ORE devices are often located in energetic sites (e.g. Celtic Sea), where sediments have been washed away, leaving a bare rocky seabed. The design of ORE devices' foundations or anchors (e.g. drilled piles) is very conservative and costly because of a lack of:

Innovation and new design guidance are needed to drive foundation cost down, and must be supported by experimental evidence. However, field testing of large scale foundations is extremely expensive. Smaller scale lab testing is limited to intact rock samples, with no geological features (e.g. discontinuities). So advanced modelling is needed at an intermediate scale.

We propose to develop a process to create artificial rock samples (rock analogues), which will mimic the main geological features of rock masses encountered in the field. This will enable the testing of small scale foundations in a repeatable/reliable way.

For full project details visit the Inspire project page .

• understanding of rock-foundation interactions
• design guidance

Supervisors

• Dr Benjamin Cerfontaine (University of Southampton)
• Dr Ismael Himar Falcon-Suarez (National Oceanography Centre)
• Professor Susan Gourvenec (University of Southampton)

Dr Benjamin Cerfontaine

• Offshore geotechnics for renewable energy - wind, tidal and wave
• Numerical and physical modelling of infrastructure
• Constitutive modelling of geomaterials for cyclic loading

Supervisors

• Supervisors: Professor Susan Gourvenec FREng, FICE, FWES, PhD, BEng Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering

Professor Susan Gourvenec FREng, FICE, FWES, PhD, BEng

• Professor Susan Gourvenec FREng, FICE, FWES, PhD, BEng: Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering

Entry requirements

A 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent , in one of these subjects:

• engineering
• geology
• geophysics
• oceanography
• marine science

Fees and funding

INSPIRE studentships are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, part of UK Research and Innovation, UKRI). The stipend is in line with UKRI standard levels, including the recent cost of living increase.

All studentships are fully funded for 3.5 years.

How to apply

To make an application, visit the how to apply section of the INSPIRE website .

Contact us

For questions about the project, contact Dr Benjamin Cerfontaine.

Email: B.Cerfontaine@soton.ac.uk

For questions about the application process, contact the graduate school office.

Email: gsnocs@soton.ac.uk

Research areas