The project
This collaborative research proposal addresses a need for the development of novel, more efficient and cost effective methods for the installation of offshore windfarms. This is especially important in the context of the quest for obtaining Net Zero goals in the UK and is also of interest for temporary power supply during decommissioning of offshore Oil & Gas assets.
The project builds on patented pumpable variable buoyancy technology (Deepbuoy), based on noncompressible liquids (deployable at depths up to 3000 m), incorporated into the Underwater Lifting System (ULS), developed and validated through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project funded by Innovate UK to Technology Readiness Level 5. The proposed research programme will be underpinned by detailed modelling studies utilizing a state-of-the-art, real-time, real-physics Marine Simulator. This will be used to build models of the Deepbuoy technology to assess its applicability, benefits in terms of costs and reduced carbon footprint for installation of wind farms infrastructure.
This project will also benefit from support Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult's Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence (FoW CoE). Read more about the Supergen ORE Hub and FoW CoE collaboration.
Dr Marcin Kapitaniak - Principal Investigator
Dr Marcin Kapitaniak is an Independent Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen’s National Decommissioning Centre (NDC) with 9 years academic research experience in applied engineering, particularly in nonlinear dynamics modelling and the field of Finite Element (FE) Modelling. He is currently the lead engineer operating the NDC's state-of-theart Marine Simulator developed by Offshore Simulation Centre (OSC), Norway. Marcin has been involved in applied research in close collaboration with companies from the energy sector (Welltec, Varel International, RotoJar, READ Cased Hole, VBPR, Halliburton) through 11 Research Projects (total project value ~£1.7M), on 7 of which he was Co-Investigator.
