Numerical Modelling of Floating Offshore Wind Moorings in Variable Seabed Conditions

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.

Future offshore wind energy is likely to be dominated by the use of floating turbines, where current standard options for foundations, such as monopiles and jackets, will not be economic (consider the potential depth of water). Floating wind has already been successfully demonstrated at scale on the two Hywind projects (Scotland and Denmark) where small floating windfarms have been created in which the individual units are anchored via mooring lines to suction “caissons” or “buckets” which are embedded in the seabed. As the name suggests these are upturned bucket structures which are sunk into the seabed by sucking out the water trapped beneath the structure. They have many advantages over standard foundation types particularly when it comes to installation and removal (and they can be subsequently reused if a windfarm is decommissioned). The expected upturn in their use for floating wind, especially in groups prompts the need for research to better understand their behaviour in a large range of seabed soils, during installation, and in the short and long term.  

The only practical way to tackle this problem is to use numerical methods. Experimental work either in the lab or in the field is of course vital for validation of numerical models, but on its own cannot hope to cover the range of conditions for which information is desperately needed, e.g. a range of seabed soils, layered and sloping sea beds, caisson design issues, such as innovative features to improve stability, or optimization of the use of material in the structure while avoiding buckling or collapse during the lifecycle. In this PhD project you will develop and use computational techniques to tackle this important soil-structure interaction problem. Extensive use will be made of an existing method (the Material Point Method) for which the group at Durham that you will join is world leading.   

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.

Depending on prior experience, you will receive specific technical training in computational methods (esp. the MPM), continuum mechanics, geotechnics, Matlab and Julia languages. The Advanced Research Computing unit at Durham will provide training in HPC, programming and version control. 

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 Charles Augarde (charles.augarde@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 Charles Augarde (charles.augarde@durham.ac.uk)

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

References & Further Reading 

[1] Frossard, Bendzovski & Tuveng 2025 Hywind Tampen – A geotechnical- and structural design of shared suction anchors, from concept to installation. In Proc. ISFOG 2025, available here. 

[2] ORE Catapult and ARUP, 2024. Floating Offshore Wind Anchor Review – Public Summary Report. Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence, PN000585-RPT-005 – Rev. 01. Available here. 

[3] Ørsted. “Suction Bucket Jacket Foundations.” Accessed September 29, 2025. Available here. 

[4] Nilson, Jostad & Pan 2025. Literature Review of Large Deformation Numerical Modelling of Suction Caisson Installations. In Proc. ISFOG 2025. Available here. 

[5] Coombs & Augarde 2020. AMPLE: A Material Point Learning Environment. Advances in Engineering Software 139:10274. Available here.