Leveraging the Material Point Method for Large Deformation Soil-Structure Interaction to Realise Net Zero

The UK’s targets for Net Zero are ambitious but must be realised if we are to prevent the worst effects of climate change over the coming decades. A key component of Net Zero is the conversion of sources of electricity to those obtained without the use of fossil fuels and for the UK this means to a large extent offshore wind. The UK has massive potential wind energy resources some of which has been realised already to an impressive extent. We are all now familiar with large offshore wind farms around our coasts and to an extent the UK has been a leader in this area with other countries starting to ramp up their own offshore wind developments (e.g. China and the USA). Offshore energy generation (including wind but int he future potentially tidal, current and wave energy could become significant) requires considerable infrastructure to be developed, maintaining and decommissioned for a resilient energy delivery service. At present, most offshore wind turbines are supported on monopile foundations driven into the seabed, but already we are seeing the advent of floating offshore wind where superstructures are tethered to the seabed via cables and anchors of various different types. As well as the foundations, the electrical services needed to connect a generation source to the grid involves major construction works, e.g. the laying in trenches of cables. As activity increases and time goes on the industry is faced with perhaps new issues, e.g. of having to build new infrastructure adjacent to existing, and the whole issue of decommissioning installations that are obsolete or need replacement. We cannot create a situation where old windfarm locations become areas of brownfield seabed. This sets the scene for this particular proposal which seeks to improve the computational tools that engineers can use to design new installations of the type described above, simulate various scenarios to assess behaviour over time and make predictions of the effect of operations (installation or decommissioning) on the seabed flora and fauna. Practical tools have to be computational. Field testing is expensive, dangerous and site-specific; physical modelling in the laboratory is useful but many issues exist with fidelity to a real site. Computational modelling, properly validated against field data and the lab testing mentioned provides the only way to make the predictions the industry will need to contribute to the Net Zero goals as outlined above. The proposed project starts from a computational software developed at Durham University, which to date has been a vibrant source of solutions to interesting research questions through three EPSRC-funded projects, and will take it to the next level as regards utility to the industry tasked with new offshore developments. The project has a suite of outstanding industry supporters who will guide the researchers during and after the project to ensure that the outputs are indeed the tools that industry needs.