Research students: REMS 2018
Anastasia Ioannou
Biography: Anastasia Ioannou is a Chemical Engineer with special interest in offshore renewable energy. Anastasia obtained her Dip-Eng degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. Upon completion of her first degree she became a member of the UPRC research team in the EC FP7 project for the Assessment of Policy Interrelationships and Impacts on Sustainability in Europe (APRAISE). She was also involved in the FP7 project GreenEcoNet for the acceleration of green technologies and practices within the business sector. Anastasia was a research student in the first cohort of the REMS CDT Programme and her main research interests lie within the development of decision support methods for sustainable energy technologies and incorporating information uncertainty in well-informed decision making.
Current employer: University of Glasgow
Position: Lecturer in Sustainable Resources
Thesis title: Risk-based Evaluation Framework of Sustainable Energy Technologies
Project description: The aim of this research project was to devise a risk-based evaluation framework for sustainable energy technologies towards better informed power generation planning taking into account a number of uncertainties and risks (in terms of costs, renewable energy policy, CO2 emission reduction targets, energy security and resilience). Emphasis was placed on quantifying the trade-off between the total risk and cost per kWh of electricity generation and subsequently an overall risk metric for each technology. The risk-based methodology framework incorporated stochastic programming methods aiming also at the determination of optimum power generation portfolios towards the attainment of 2030 and 2050 energy policy targets.
Academic supervisors: Dr Andrew Angus, Prof Feargal Brennan
Maria Martinez Luengo
Biography: Maria Martinez Luengo is a Renewable Energy Engineer with special interest in structural health monitoring of offshore components and structures. Maria received her Bachelor degree in Energetic Resources, Fuels and Explosives Engineering from the School of Mining Engineering at the Politechnic University of Madrid and completed her MSc in Renewable Energy Engineering at Cranfield University. She was awarded the best MSc thesis prize for the project titled “Multi-criteria risk identification and maintenance optimisation of end of life scenarios for offshore wind farms” which was sponsored by NERC and Bureau Veritas. Maria is was a member of the first cohort of the REMS CDT Programme and her research project focused on the development of efficient data collection, processing and interpretation techniques for the offshore wind turbine tower structures.
Current employer: Scottish Power
Position: Structural Asset Integrity Engineer
Thesis title: Development of a Framework for the Effective Data Management of Structural Health Monitoring Systems for Offshore Wind Turbines
Project description: In 2007 the EU set particular and challenging goals to all Member Estates, establishing that by 2020 the UK must produce the 15% of their energy consumption from renewable energy sources.
Offshore wind can contribute towards this target achievement in many ways. SHMS are being installed offshore however, the necessary frameworks for processing and utilising in a profitable way the huge amount of data that Structural Health Monitoring Systems collect from the offshore emplacements, have not been developed yet and constitute the gap of knowledge this project aims to accomplish. Therefore the main aim of this project was to develop a framework for the effective data management of Structural Health Monitoring Systems for offshore wind turbines.
Academic supervisors: Dr Mahmood Shafiee, Prof Athanasios Kolios
Industrial Supervisor: Thomas Wewer (RWE)
Scott Whyte
Biography: Scott Whyte was an Offshore Geotechnical Engineer from Fugro GeoConsulting Limited. Prior to working for Fugro Scott obtained a 1st class BEng (Hons) degree in Structural and Architectural Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in which he was awarded the ICE Scottish Geotechnical Group (SGG) student award. Following this Scott achieved an MSc (with distinction) in Geotechnics at Glasgow University and the University of Strathclyde where he was awarded the David Livingston Centre for Sustainability prize for the top MSc student within Geotechncis. His research interests are primarily in advanced laboratory testing, constitutive modelling and offshore foundation designs.
Scott was enrolled on the DEng program at Oxford, with the support of Fugro.
Current employer: Geowynd Limited
Position: Consultant / Director
Thesis title: Development, Implementation and Assessment of Constitutive Models for Finite Element Analysis of Offshore Foundations
Project Description: Finite element analysis (FEA) is a powerful tool widely used for the analysis of geotechnical problems. A fundamental element of FEA is the selection and use of a suitable constitutive model. Given the complexity of real soil, a single all-encompassing constitutive model, which can be calibrated from a reasonable number of laboratory tests does not exist. Therefore, over the last 50 years a significant number of constitutive models have been proposed in attempt to capture the most salient features of natural soil. The practical use of many of these models is limited and many incorporate somewhat arbitrary empirical extensions to capture important aspects of soil behaviour. This DEng project developed and implemented practical constitutive models suitable for capturing the effects of overconsolidated soils (i.e. dry side of critical state), which can be used for the FEA of offshore foundations. An extensive research laboratory testing programme was completed on undisturbed samples to assist the development of the constitutive models.
Academic supervisors: Prof Harvey Burd, Prof Chris Martin
Industrial supervisor: Dr Mike Rattley (Fugro)
Trevon Joseph
Biography: Trevon Joseph is a Chartered Senior Engineer from Atkins Ltd. who specializes in Offshore Geotechnics. Trevon studied Civil Engineering for his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad before taking a Master’s Degree in Engineering Seismology in France and Italy. Trevon worked for Atkins Ltd. as an Offshore Engineer for the last 10 years where, and before joining the DEng Program, he was Project Manager and Geotechnical Team Leader on a number of complex and challenging offshore renewables and Oil and Gas projects. He specialises in the foundation design, particularly for jacket piles, monopiles, as well as the design of shallow foundations such as gravity based structures and suction caissons. Trevon was a EPSRC funded student enrolled on the DEng program at Oxford, with support from Atkins.
Current employer: Ramboll UK Limited
Position: Lead Offshore Geotechnical Engineer
Thesis title: Axial Response of Offshore Jacket Piles Supporting Wind Turbines
Project description: Trevon’s research focused on assessment of current industry based pile design methods for offshore jacket structures, with a focus on open ended steel piles. Each method adopts a slightly different approach for estimating pile lengths when used for the support offshore wind turbines. The reliability of each method varies depending on soil conditions. This DEng research project has improved the reliability of these methods and consequently their application in industry.
Academic supervisors: Prof Guy Houlsby, Prof Harvey Burd
Industrial supervisor: Dr Paul Taylor (Atkins)
Vera Mytilinou
Biography: Vera Mytilinou is a Mechanical Engineer with special interest in offshore renewable energy support structures. She received her Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Western Macedonia in Greece. Vera was a research student in the first cohort of the REMS CDT Programme and her main research interest was to develop a framework for offshore renewable energy applications by combining principles from Multi Criteria Decision Making, Multi-Objective Optimisation and other Computational Engineering Techniques.
Current employer: Simplicity Energy Ltd
Position: Data Analyst
Thesis title: Multi-objective and Multi-criteria Decision Making on Offshore Wind Farm Location and Support Structure
Project description: This PhD research aimed to devise and apply a methodology integrating Multi-Objective Optimisation and Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods along with industrial experts’ insight in order to make more informed decisions and increase the confidence in strategic investments. An optimum offshore wind farm location based on different physical and economic aspects was selected by combining a series of optimisation methods. In addition, the best offshore wind turbine support structure for that location was selected through decision making methods and experts’ opinions in every stage of the process.
Academic supervisors: Dr Mahmood Shafiee, Prof Athanasios Kolios
Waseem Khodabux
Biography: Waseem Khodabux is a Mechanical Engineer with special interest in Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHMs) and also Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques for offshore renewable energy applications. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the City University in London and completed his Master’s degree in Renewable Energy Engineering at Cranfield University. Waseem was a research student in the first cohort of the REMS CDT Programme and his research was mainly focused on the structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines.
Current employer: University of Strathclyde
Position: Research Associate
Thesis title: Optimization of Structural Health Monitoring Systems through Integration of Technological and Analytical Methods
Project description: This PhD research project aimed to improve the performance of the structural health monitoring systems (SHMs) for offshore wind turbine structures, in particular where they are subjected to fatigue and pitting corrosion damages. To achieve this aim, the project investigated three interconnected aspects associated with the SHM of wind structures, including:
(I) The assessment of SHM data to evaluate the degree of confidence of the monitored data as part of a quantitative structural reliability model and development of algorithms for fault detection of sensors and also to identify and visualise fatigue damage across an offshore wind array;
(ii) Marrying pitting corrosion to SHM of offshore wind structures for informed maintenance decision-making of structures taking into account the increase of the number of pits, the pit growth and the pit to crack transition and the crack growth
(iii) Extensive field experiments to characterise the pits dimensions and numbers using optical methods and also taking into account the topological changes of the plate over a specific period of time.
Academic supervisors: Prof Ali Mehmanparast, Prof Feargal Brennan
Industrial supervisor: Hyunjoo Lee (ORE Catapult)
Peter Houlston
Biography: Peter Houlston is a Geotechnical Engineer working for Atkins Ltd. specialising in offshore geotechnics. Before working for Atkins, he graduated from the University of Birmingham with a Bachelors of Civil Engineering. Since graduating, he has worked in the Ground Engineering team based in Birmingham performing a range of design work for the Rail, Offshore Renewable and Oil and Gas industries. His work has primarily focused on the design of piled foundations for jacket structures predominantly focusing on driven and drilled and grouted foundations in chalk. In his time at Atkins, Peter has assisted in the development of novel cyclic testing approaches for assessing the axial performance of piles under cyclic loading. Peter was enrolled on the DEng program at Oxford, with the support of Atkins.
Current employer: Atkins Ltd
Position: Assistant Geotechnical Engineer
Thesis title: Numerical Modelling of Laterally Loaded Monopiles
Project description: Monopiles are a commonly used foundation for supporting offshore wind turbine structures. It is now widely accepted that current design methods for laterally loaded piles may not be representative for these large diameter piled foundations. Recent work by the PISA Joint Industry Project has demonstrated that more reliable predictions of monopile response are possible, but at the expense of adopting more advanced design methods. This DEng research project developed numerical modelling techniques typically available to the design consultant, applied to monopile problems. The work focused on soil conditions encountered in the North Sea and has provided recommendations of different approaches that can be adopted for design. The project has improved understanding of failure mechanisms associated with laterally loaded monopiles.
Academic supervisors: Prof Chris Martin
Industrial supervisor: Sebastien Manceau (Atkins)