Enhancing Damage detection and characterisation technologies for complex marine Structures under Extreme environmental conditions (EnDorSE)

VThe EU is a world leader in the generation of marine energy, with a capacity of 27.9MW for tidal energy and 12MW for wave energy installed in Europe since 2010 and an increasing horizon with up to 100MW as capacity for ocean energy for 2025. The structures aimed at generating this energy are subject to extreme operational and environmental conditions in the ocean; hence their monitoring maintenance strategies are very challenging. This typically requires structures that can be easily accessed by trained operators. However, such a technology increases costs not only of design and construction, but also maintenance. Autonomous structural health monitoring (SHM) systems constitute a viable option that can effectively substitute the dangerous presence of operators in routinary inspections. These systems will reduce monitoring costs while increasing maintenance accuracy and safety levels which will make the ocean energy production cheaper and more reliable.
Various SHM modalities can be adopted to monitor marine structures. Ultrasonic guided-waves (UGW) stand out for their ability to detect and characterise damage signatures in complex structures. Nonetheless, the consideration of the added complexities of the extreme offshore environment is a fundamental problem that impedes the implementation of this technology on marine structures and hence it remains unsolved.
EnDorSE will bring together a Fellow being expert in damage identification and a host institution carrying leading academic know-how in UGW interaction modelling in order to develop the next generation of robust and fast SHM systems for the detection and identification of damage in the ever-growing marine energy sector.
The placement of the Fellow to Stratosphere will guarantee the practical implementation of the theoretical developments of EnDorSE in real marine energy structures.
EnDorSE will enable cheaper and more reliable renewable energy for consumers and render Europe a pole of predictive maintenance.