Left in the wake: assessing the impact of sediment mobility in the wake of offshore wind infrastructure

Project Description:

This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The project is sponsored by industry partner, The Turbidites Research Group (TRG). The successful applicant will undertake six-months of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at Loughborough University. The project is part of a research cluster focusing on Offshore wind energy geotechnics.

Offshore wind is a core component of global solutions to net-zero. The increasing demand for renewable energy is driving the installation of larger offshore infrastructure at greater geographical extents, including into more morphodynamically active regions (e.g., the shallow southern Northern Sea).

Bottom-mounted offshore wind infrastructure increases bed scour and enhances vertical mixing, resulting in elevated suspended sediment concentration (water turbidity) and the generation of sediment plumes. Understanding the distribution and intensity of sediment plumes is critical given the impact of water turbidity on marine ecosystem functions (e.g. May et al., 2003; Ortega et al., 2020). Hence, there is a need to understand the physical processes that enable the extent and concentration of these plumes around man-made infrastructure (e.g. monopiles, cables, bridges and geofluid extraction infrastructure).

Offshore sediment plumes are visible from space and trace the turbulent wakes in the lee of offshore wind infrastructure (Bailey et al. 2024). Research to date has focused on field studies and remote observations to reveal sediment wake distributions and concentrations (Vanhellmont & Ruddick, 2014; Bailey et al., 2024). These have evidenced that sediment from the seabed is drawn upwards from tidal flow interactions with sea-bed infrastructure through complex fluid-structure interactions. It is hypothesised that the size of these wakes scales with the number of wind farm structures (van der Molen et al., 2014). However, the scale of observed sediment plumes is several kilometres; much larger than the expected length scales over which coherent wakes may be expected to persist. Critically, there is a poor understanding of the fundamental physics, including plume buoyancy as a control on 3D flow dynamics, associated with sediment transport dynamics in the lee of offshore wind infrastructure and other seafloor obstacles. Improving our understanding of these processes is complicated by their multi-scale nature and the simplifications made within current models.

This project will develop novel methods and data to enable advanced predictions of the spatial and temporal distribution and turbidity of the sediment plumes around offshore wind infrastructure via:

(1) Physical modelling experiments to resolve particle transport processes around fixed bottom offshore wind foundations,

(2) Computational fluid dynamics modelling based on Lattice Boltzmann (LB) framework to simulate sediment transport surrounding offshore infrastructure (working with industry partners TRG). The LB framework is uniquely capable of performing highly scalable, high-accuracy simulations of buoyancy-driven flows at a large scale (Adekanye et al., 2022).

The project has some flexibility to complement the candidate’s expertise and desired skills development in fluid and sediment dynamics. There is potential to incorporate remote sensing of sediment plume distributions and correlation with infrastructure and hydroclimate conditions.

Project partner TRG (The Turbidites Research Group) is a Joint Industry Project run for over 30 years from the University of Leeds. It has specialised in academic-industry knowledge exchange, research and innovation on deep water sediment laden density driven flows with the global energy industry. Through the TRG, the student will have the opportunity to engage with a wide range of research and industry partners, including through biannual (international) workshops.

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.

To aid learning and development of LB methods the successful student will be supported in attending an extended placement with the TRG at the University of Leeds, working with TRG advisor Dr Amirul Khan. Moreover, the student will be afforded overseas placement opportunities. For example, relevant summer schools, or to carry out additional experiments. These include opportunities to visit the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, to evaluate the flow field dynamics inside monopile arrays using novel Refractive Index Matching (RIM) modelling techniques.

The prospective student is supported to become an established researcher with key transferable skills for use beyond the PhD programme. This includes but is not limited to opportunities to: undertake specialised training in CFD, management development, Safe AI training, present at international conferences, engage with industry partners and undertake an internship or policy internship in government.

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 engineering, computer science, mathematics and statistics, or physics, we would like to hear from you.

For more information about the project, please email Dr Tim Marjoribanks via t.i.marjoribanks@lboro.ac.uk. For enquiries about the CDT, please email auracdt@hull.ac.uk .

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Funding

The 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 have been set by UKRI as £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

Our funded Doctoral Scholarships are available to UK Students. The advertised CDT scholarships in this current recruitment round are available to Home (UK) Students only as the CDT has reached the annual cap, set by the funding council (UKRI EPSRC), on international student recruitment for the 2025 intake. 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).

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

Please ensure that you familiarise yourself with the Aura CDT website before you apply to give you a good understanding of what a CDT is, our CDT’s research focus and the training and continuing professional development programme that runs alongside the CDT. The Frequently asked questions  page and  Candidate resources page are essential reading prior to applying. 

Applications are open until Friday 9 May 2025 

Applications to this project are made via the Loughborough University admissions system. If you have not applied to Loughborough University before, you will need to set up an account to enable you to track the progress of your application and upload supporting documents. 

Follow this link to apply for CDT projects at Loughborough University: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/research-applications/  

 Under programme name, select ‘Business School’. Both Full-time and Part-time modes of study are available. Please quote the advertised reference number in your application: this is insert code for “insert project name”: Aura25-TM

With your application, you need to upload copies of the following supporting evidence:  

• Complete transcripts (and final degree certificate(s) where possible). If your qualification documents are not in English, you will need to supply copies of your original language documents as well as their official translation into English. 
• Your Curriculum Vitae (CV).  
• A completed Supplementary Application Form (upload as part of your supporting evidence documentation). 

Please download the Supplementary Application Form here. 

Ensure you complete all sections of the Supplementary Application Form in font and size Calibri 11pt, specify the research project you are applying for.  

Uploading the form 

When you have completed the form, please save it as a pdf format and labelled as follows: 

Last name_first name PhD application form 

Upload the form as part of your application documents through the Loughborough University student application portal upload as part of your supporting evidence documentation. Please do not send your form directly to the Offshore Wind CDT.  

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). Interviews will take place during early and mid-June. 

For more information about the project, please email Dr Tim Marjoribanks via t.i.marjoribanks@lboro.ac.uk. For enquiries about the CDT, please email auracdt@hull.ac.uk .