The effects of manufacturing processes on structural integrity assessment of Offshore Wind Turbine foundations
Prof Ali Mehmanparast
Professor of Offshore Structural Integrity
University of Strathclyde
UK
Summary:
An efficient source of renewable energy, which is increasingly the preferred solution for realising Britain’s short- and long-term energy ambitions, is offshore wind. While Britain is presently one of the global leaders in offshore wind energy, the national target set by the UK government to increase the currently installed offshore wind capacity from approximately 10 GW to 50 GW in 2030 demonstrates the strategic importance of this clean source of energy for the UK’s energy mix. Fatigue damage is known to be the dominant failure mechanism in Offshore Wind Turbine structures, particularly in the foundations which are subjected to severe cyclic loading conditions. This means that during operation, fatigue cracks may initiate and propagate through the structure. An important issue that needs to be considered in structural integrity assessment of Offshore Wind Turbine foundations is the influence of manufacturing processes on the subsequent fatigue and fracture behaviour of the material. This means that careful considerations must be made in the design and life assessment of these offshore structures by accounting for the fabrication phase in the lifecycle analysis. The aim of this talk is to present the structural integrity challenges associated with the manufacturing processes employed in fabrication of Offshore Wind Turbines with the view to improve the life prediction, reduce the number of frequent inspections and enable life-extension for existing and future offshore wind farms.
Speaker Biography:
Prof Ali Mehmanparast (PhD, MBA, CEng, CMgr) is a Professor of Offshore Structural Integrity at University of Strathclyde. He is a member of the management committee for the Strathclyde-Oxford-Edinburgh Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures (WAMSS CDT) and was previously the Manager of the Cranfield-Oxford-Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training in Renewable Energy Marine Structures (REMS CDT). Ali completed his MEng and PhD degrees, followed by two years of post-doctoral research, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. After spending a decade at Imperial (2004-2014), he worked at Cranfield University as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader, and in 2022 he was appointed as a Professor at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Ali is a Chartered Engineer of IMechE, Chartered Manager and Fellow of CMI, and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is on Editorial Board of four international journals; Engineering Failure Analysis (Elsevier), Materials at High Temperatures (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Multiscale Modelling (World Scientific) and Wind (MDPI) . He has published over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and book chapters in the field of engineering structural integrity and has chaired technical sessions at international conferences. Ali was a member of the technical delivery team for the Structural Lifecycle Industry Collaboration Joint Industry Project (SLIC JIP), the PI of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory funded project on welding residual stress effects on fatigue life assessment of monopiles, the academic lead of the Carbon Trust funded project on offshore wind turbine flange bolted connections and the PI of research projects funded by the Supergen Wind Hub and Supergen ORE Hub on floating and fixed-bottom offshore wind turbine foundations.