Optimization of offshore wind farm layout considering seabed conditions
Jared Charles (Infrastructure), Susan Gourvenec (Infrastructure)
Duration: 6-8 weeks (224 hours) from 28th June 2021 (suggested start date)
Offshore windfarms are growing in size and being constructed across areas with significant variability of seabed sediments. Layout of windfarms is typically driven by optimizing efficiency of the wind energy that can be generated. Foundations for offshore wind turbines are an expensive component of offshore wind farms but layout of offshore wind farms considering ground conditions (among the other priorities) is currently not a standard consideration.
This internship will explore the effect of considering seabed conditions in layout of offshore wind farms. The intern will use genetic algorithms to automatically identify the locations for wind turbines at a particular site to minimise total foundation costs across the whole site given other various layout constraints.
The internship will consist of three steps: 1, collecting real offshore site data from several publicly available sources and cleaning it for analysis; 2, using existing foundation design tools to reformulate the site data into heatmaps of foundation diameter and length; 3, using a simple genetic algorithm model to demonstrate selection of optimal turbine foundation locations.
The intern will produce a short technical report summarising the assembled datasets, heat maps and the findings of the genetic algorithm investigation. This internship would be suitable for any student (or recent graduate) who has confidence in programming and desire to learn about genetic algorithms and offshore engineering.
Key skills: Programming (Matlab, Python, or other), Data processing
CIVIL, MARITIME
AND ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
University of Southampton
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Contact us:
+44(0)23 8059 5000
+44(0)23 8059 3131
University of Southampton
University Road
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom
CIVIL, MARITIME
AND ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
University of Southampton
Explore our website:
Contact us:
+44(0)23 8059 5000
+44(0)23 8059 3131
University of Southampton
University Road
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom
© 2020 Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering Department
© 2020 Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering Department