31/10/16

The 2nd REMS Annual Conference was hosted by The University of Oxford at Wolfson College focussing on the topic of ‘The Future of the Offshore Wind Monopile’. In line with the 1st REMS conference, there was extensive participation from both industry and academia, highlighting the high level of knowledge transfer between the two. There were over 80 delegates across industry and academia, giving presentations on the three main areas of research carried out at the REMS CDT: geotechnics, manufacturing and structural integrity and design.

Dr Ross McAdam begun the first session talking about the recent advances in geotechnical design of monopiles, how the current design process has already incorporated the lessons learnt during the PISA project. It also looked at how Structural Health Monitoring can be further integrated into the monopole design process. Professor Harvey Burd followed on with a presentation on numerical modelling, presenting an innovative method based on the PISA project findings. Jasper Winks (Fistuca BV) showed a cutting-edge method of pile driving based on the ‘world’s biggest hammer’ using a combination of water and combustion, promising to decrease capital costs incurred due to noise mitigation measures and by extension the LCoE.

Dr Athanasios Kolios gave a presentation on the implications of XXL monopiles. Maria Martinez Luengo discussed the ‘Statistical Pattern Recognition Paradigm’ and how this can be used to develop efficient condition monitoring systems further decreasing the LCoE. Tim Fischer (Ramboll) discussed the importance of holistic design, highlighting that monopiles present only a single answer to a much larger question. The second session was finished by an expert panel, comprising of academia and industry discussing the challenges faced by the industry and how they may be resolved.

In the final session of the day, an excellent lecture was given by Kate Harvey (G+) talking about the importance of safety in the wind industry and the significant strides that have been made in reducing the number of incidents. She highlighted the further work that is required and how safety can be further improved by collaborative efforts within the industry. The final session of the day was concluded by Dr Ali Mehmanparast, discussing the importance of understanding residual stresses formed in monopiles during manufacture and how these residual stresses may lead to lower OPEX by informing the inspection schedule during the turbine lifetime.

The second day of the conference was planned and run by the students of the REMS CDT. Panel sessions were run on modelling and experimentation methods. Cohort 3 had their group project introduced to be completed with industry collaboration, one with Lloyds Register (feasibility of three legged jacket substructure) and the second with G+ (relating to safety issues of heavy lift operations). Previous cohorts gave their opinions and advice on how to tackle situations that may arise.