Our strategic ambition is to change the world for the better.
Ocean engineering involves consideration of the whole-life of an engineered change in the natural environment. Design of any structure or device to be placed in the ocean requires accurate characterisation of the natural environment through site investigation and an understanding of the effect of the presence of the proposed structure on the natural environment; installation, commissioning, operation, intervention, maintenance and repair of infrastructure must be feasible within the boundary conditions of the environment; and decommissioning should minimize risk to personnel, environmental impact and financial cost.
Developing intelligent and resilient solutions that enable alternative decommissioning scenarios can be used to establish new design paradigms to inform on the next generation ocean infrastructure. The Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Intelligent and Resilient Ocean Engineering addresses the technology gaps at each stage of life to deliver the next generation of engineered ocean systems.
A paradigm shift in ocean engineering is required to reflect the paradigm shift in the use of the oceans, to meet the demands of an increasing and increasingly wealthy population and the paradigm shift brought about by the digital revolution. Outcomes from this Chair will realise ocean resources in a safe and sustainable manner; harnessing wealth from the oceans while preserving their health.
The 10 year work programme will create intelligent and resilient ocean systems through development, deployment and commercialisation of tools and technologies that provide a step-change in how we characterise the oceans, design and operate resilient systems and inform new design paradigms for engineered maritime systems across the lifecycle; and establish an enduring Centre of Excellence in Intelligent and Resilient Ocean Engineering.
Characterisation
Research goal: Create intelligent site characterisation tools for remote or autonomous deployment or operation to upscale capability without upscalling cost.
Most existing ocean developments are lone platforms, 100 m or more in edge length, accessing hydrocarbons (oil, gas or both) from a reservoir deep beneath the ocean floor. In contrast offshore renewable energy developments can require more than a 100 structures over hundreds of square kilometres owing to the lower energy yield per structure for offshore renewables compared with hydrocarbons. In other words, more structures are needed to meet the same energy demand.
With specialist offshore site investigation (SI) vessel day rates of many tens of thousands of pounds, time offshore must be minimized without compromising the quality of data to make ocean development more competitive.
Activities within Research Goal 1 ‘Characterisation’ focus on development of new tools and protocols to efficiently and accurately characterise the seabed environment that are critical to provide the engineering parameters for design of any structure to be placed in the ocean, without the need for a costly geotechnical site investigation vessel and without placing crew offshore.
Station keeping
Research goal: Create smart mooring and anchor solutions for efficient and stable platforms in increasingly harsh environments.
Offshore renewable energy sites are by nature subject to severe environmental conditions (wind, currents, wave or all). Extreme metocean conditions are not necessarily the case for offshore hydrocarbon developments – from which most offshore engineering experience derives – since locations are selected for the presence of subterranean reserves. Offshore renewable energy developments also require many more structures than a hydrocarbon development owing to the lower yield per structure, and therefore more foundations or anchors to secure the structures to the seabed.
Traditionally, offshore structures are secured to the seabed by driven piles, suction caissons or gravity foundations that require a surface vessel for installation and can take a day or more for a single foundation to be installed. As with offshore site investigation vessels, offshore installation vessels have day rates of tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds such that time offshore for installation must be minimized to make greater use of the oceans feasible. These two key factors create unprecedented challenges for station-keeping future ocean structures.
Activities within Research Goal 2 ‘Station keeping’ focus on development of new tools and techniques for efficient and effective station keeping required to unlock the potential of renewable ocean energy, and to enable competitive solutions for aquaculture and future ocean space applications. These new technologies will meet the need for rapid installation with minimal intervention to secure structures in the ocean.
Sensing
Research goal: Create living designs by embedding intelligent sensing in engineered ocean systems that inform on system health and ultimately self-certify.
Offshore structures are currently monitored for a range of conditions to inform on operational performance, intervention, maintenance or repair (IMR), life-extension and more recently on the state of a structure or system following decommissioning. The challenge is the volume of data collected and the extent to which this can be synthesised to form a clear picture of a structure’s system health, to enable either a human or autonomous system to act on the information.
Smart sensing systems can self-certify system health, addressing the burden and risk of monitoring ocean structures, and enabling optimization of whole of life performance. Smart sensing systems also open up opportunities for end-of-life options for offshore structures to enable minimum life-cycle environmental impact and inform on design of future structures.
Activities within Research Goal 3 ‘Sensing’ focus on development of a living design approach to address the need for live assessment of system health, minimizing the need for and enabling targeting of additional inspection.
Design
Research goal: Create next generation design concepts and methodologies, for modular mass produced intelligent systems, performance-based design and optimal life-cycle cost.
Current offshore structures are designed as one-off bespoke structures against criteria evolved from handling hazardous hydrocarbons. In contrast, mass produced structures are needed for large scale offshore renewable energy or food production and present lesser hazards to people and the environment. This presents a challenge and opportunity to unshackle offshore structure design from the inherited oil and gas paradigm, and establish a culture of mass produced resilient structures utilising next generation materials, providing a basis for efficient and sustainable ocean engineering.
Challenging traditional design paradigms of failure that require structures to be large enough to resist all applied loads, to enable performance-based design such that failure is redefined as when a structure or system can no-longer perform the task it is designed for, unlocks opportunities for softer and tolerable mobile structures that are resilient to extreme loads. Challenging the traditional bespoke design approach with an alternative template of modular systems, which can be combined to create a next generation ocean system, opens up opportunities for future harvesting of ocean resources and use of ocean space.
Performance-based design has potential to transform the seascape of ocean structures, enabling future visions for ocean structures that include versatile, reconfigurable, modular components fabricated from advanced materials for harnessing renewable, mineral and biomass resources and enabling greater use of ocean space.
Activities within Research Goal 4 ‘Design’ focus on development of next generation design concepts and methodologies.
