Centrifuge Physical Modelling of Floating Offshore Wind Moorings in Layered Soils

About the Project

The future of offshore wind energy lies in floating turbines, enabling the capture of wind power in deep waters where conventional foundations (like monopiles and jackets) are not economically viable. Pioneering projects, such as by Hywind (in Scottish and Danish waters) and Ørsted (in Scottish and German waters), have successfully demonstrated that these floating units can be securely anchored using suction caissons (or “buckets”) embedded in the seabed. These foundations offer significant advantages, particularly the ease of installation, removal, and potential reuse, making them highly sustainable. However, the anticipated increase in their use, especially deployed in large, clustered groups for new wind farms, creates an urgent need to develop a robust understanding of their behaviour across diverse seabed soils and throughout all lifecycle stages.

This PhD project focuses on using Geotechnical Centrifuge Modelling (also known as Hypergravity Modelling) to meet this knowledge gap. This technique offers a practical and cost-effective means to test a wide range of real-world scenarios at appropriate stresses and scales, providing crucial data necessary for:

1. Understanding caisson performance in diverse soil conditions, including layered, heterogeneous soils, and sloping seabeds.
2. Numerical model validation and design optimisation by supplying high-quality data needed to validate and refine the next generation of predictive numerical models.

A key innovation in this research will be the use of transparent soil analogues of sand and clay, immersed in a fluid with a matched refractive index. This allows for the direct, visual observation of the soil-structure interaction, enabling detailed three-dimensional measurement of displacements and strains. In this project, you will utilise transparent soil to examine, in detail, how different seabed soils interact as a suction caisson is installed within a geotechnical centrifuge environment.

This research will help bridge the gap between theoretical numerical predictions and practical, safe engineering design, ultimately ensuring the reliability and stability of these foundations for the future of floating offshore wind.

Training & Development

Your training will begin with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull, 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 giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs.

This PhD will equip you to tackle highly complex, multi-physics engineering problems, taking in both fundamental and practical perspectives. You will receive in-house training on both geotechnical centrifuge (hypergravity) physical modelling and the use of transparent soils (refractive index matching) and related optical methods, including the handling of high-powered lasers. This will be complemented by CDT and professional workshops on physical testing in geomechanics and offshore renewables.

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 international equivalents) in Engineering or Physics we would like to hear from you.

If you have not previously been educated in English, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language ability. We require an IELTS (or equivalent) score of 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

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 under-represented ethnic groups to our programme and is an opt-in process.

How to Apply

Please familiarise yourself with the AURA CDT website before you apply. The Frequently asked questions page and Candidate resources page are essential reading.

As part of the recruitment process, please submit a short 5-minute film of you delivering a presentation on “How do your experiences and qualities provide a background to contribute to research and innovation for the project you have applied for”.

You will be assessed on the content of your presentation, not your film editing skills, but please film in an appropriate, quiet location. The presentation could be a slide presentation with voice over, or you may wish to present simply talking to the camera, use the method you are most comfortable with. Please use tools and technology that are accessible to you e.g. your mobile phone, Keynote or Powerpoint.

You may only apply for ONE project offered through the CDT, via this page. After filling in your personal details, please select ‘Doctoral Training Course’ as the qualification you are applying for, and ‘AURA II CDT’ for the specific doctoral training course.

Please upload the following to your application:

• Complete transcripts and degree certificates (where possible). The documents should be provided in English and the original language.
• Your CV.
• A completed Supplementary Application Form. This includes space for you to provide a link where the shortlisting panel may view your film.

Save the supplementary application form as a pdf, labelled: Last name_first name PhD application form, and upload it when asked to add your Supporting Statement. Do not send your form directly to the CDT.

Interviews

First-round interviews will be held online during early to mid-February 2026. The interview panel will comprise the project supervisors and a CDT representative. Where the project involves external or industry supervisors then they may form part of the interview panel and your application documents will be shared with them.

If you are successful, you will progress to a second interview towards the end of February 2026. This will be with key academics from the CDT from across our four partner institutions (Durham, Hull, Loughborough, Sheffield) and your application documents will be shared with them.

Documents shared with external staff will have the guaranteed interview scheme section removed from your supplementary application form.

Funding Notes

The AURA CDT is funded by 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).

Our CDT scholarships are available to Home (UK) students. To be considered a Home student, you must have no restrictions on how long you 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.