Large Deformation Numerical Modelling of Drag Embedment Anchors for Floating Offshore Wind

Project Description:

This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The successful applicant will undertake six-month of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at Durham University.

The deployment of offshore wind energy requires operations that interact with the seabed. These operations range from initial site investigation, where cone penetrometers are used to determine seabed properties for foundation/cable design, to the installation of foundations/moorings that support/secure turbines and burial of cables that transfer power within a wind farm and to shore.

The site-specific and variable nature of the seabed makes it difficult to predict the seabed’s response to these operations, such as predicting the force required to install a foundation/anchor or to create a trench for a power cable. However, this information is required when specifying vessels and deployment equipment, creating uncertainty, inflated costs due to over specification of vessels and/or insurance claims when delays occur.

The transition to floating offshore wind to meet 2050 net-zero targets will bring additional challenges that require innovative anchoring and mooring solutions to secure thousands of turbines in deep waters. The UK’s ambition for 40GW of floating offshore wind by 2050 implies the deployment of approximately 2,700 turbines (based on a 15MW turbine), each requiring robust anchoring systems supported by mooring lines spanning large seabed areas. This will involve the installation of up to 8,000 anchor and mooring systems in heterogeneous soils and seabed conditions, highlighting a critical need for scalable, reliable design and installation practices.

High performance Drag Embedment Anchors (DEAs) represent an offshore-proven, cost-effective solution that can be sized using existing design guidance. However, there is uncertainty in the installation forces, and therefore feasibility, as DEAs are upscaled to secure future turbines (15MW+). This project applies the Material Point Method to simulate installation and post-installation behaviour of drag embedment anchors. It will provide insights into anchor capacity, and performance under variable loading, contributing to the design of high-performance systems for floating turbines. 

Training and development

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull for the new student intake, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

You will receive in-house training in advanced numerical modelling, computational mechanics, plasticity, large deformation mechanics, etc. in addition to the general research skills training offered at Durham University. The student will also be able to engage with training from the UK Association for Computational Mechanics (UKACM) community.  

Entry requirements

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in Computer Science, Engineering, or Physics, we would like to hear from you.

If your first language is not English, or you require Tier 4 student visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill.

If you have any queries about this project, please contact Prof Will Coombs (w.m.coombs@durham.ac.uk) 

You may also address queries about the CDT to auracdt@hull.ac.uk.

Watch our short video to hear from Aura CDT students, academics and industry partners:

Funding

The Offshore Wind CDT is funded by the EPSRC, allowing us to provide scholarships that cover fees plus a stipend set at the UKRI nationally agreed rates. These are currently £20,780 per annum at 2025/26 rates and will increase in line with the EPSRC guidelines for the subsequent years (subject to progress).

Eligibility

Research Council funding for postgraduate research has residence requirements. Our CDT scholarships are available to Home (UK) Students. To be considered a Home student, and therefore eligible for a full award, a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the scholarship (with some further constraint regarding residence for education). For full eligibility information, please refer to the EPSRC website.

We also allocate a number of scholarships for International Students per cohort.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The CDT is committed to generating a diverse and inclusive training programme and is looking to attract applicants from all backgrounds. We offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for home fee status candidates who identify as Black or Black mixed or Asian or Asian mixed if they meet the programme entry requirements. This positive action is to support recruitment of these under-represented ethnic groups to our programme and is an opt in process.

Find out more

How to apply

Applications for this project will open in Autumn 2025 for September 2026 entry.

Interviews will be held online with an interview panel comprising of project supervisory team members from the host university where the project is based.  Where the project involves external supervisors from university partners or industry sponsors then representatives from these partners may form part of the interview panel and your supplementary application form will be shared with them (with the guaranteed interview scheme section removed).

If you have any queries about this project, please contact Prof Will Coombs (w.m.coombs@durham.ac.uk) 

You may also address queries about the CDT to auracdt@hull.ac.uk.

References & Further Reading 

[1] D Sulsky, Z Chen, HL Schreyer (1994). A particle method for history-dependent materials. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng, 118 (1), pp. 179-196. https://doi.org/10.1016/0045-7825(94)90112-0 

[2] Bird, R., Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Sharif, Y. U., Brown, M. J., Carter, G., Macdonald, C., & Johnson, K. (2025). A dynamic implicit 3D material point-to-rigid body contact approach for large deformation analysis. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 126(14), Article e70080. https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.70080 

[3] Bird, R., Pretti, G., Coombs, W., Augarde, C., Sharif, Y., Brown, M., Carter, G., Macdonald, C., & Johnson, K. (2024). An implicit material point-to-rigid body contact approach for large deformation soil-structure interaction. Computers and Geotechnics, 174, Article 106646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2024.106646 

[4] Liu, W., Tian, Y., Cassidy, M.J., O’Loughlin, C. & Watson, P. (2024). Numerical Investigation of the Capacity of Anchor Chain Links in Clay, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 150 (10). https://doi.org/10.1061/JGGEFK.GTENG-11676