Co-design of floating offshore wind (FOW) and aquaculture hybrid systems for the Celtic Sea

The UK has ambitious targets for the deployment of floating offshore wind (FOW) in the Celtic sea as part of the drive to enable a transition to zero carbon energy. The co-design of FOW and suitable sustainable aquaculture has the potential to increase the benefit of these deployments. This includes increased employment opportunities for local communities, improved economic diversification, optimisation of marine spatial use and reductions in combined environmental impacts.

However, there are technological challenges facing the development of specialised infrastructure that can support both activities simultaneously. Aquaculture infrastructure experiences significantly different hydrodynamic loading then traditional FOW platform designs. For example, the inclusion of a fish cage onto a FOW design would result in oscillating flow through the cage as the platform moves in response to environmental loads.

This could damp platform motion, while increasing load in the cage / platform connection. The ability to accurately and reliably model these changes to motions and loads is needed before such systems can be efficiently designed. The modelling challenge is further increased when considering 'flexible' aquaculture infrastructure, such as rope nets, which will deform in response to these loads.

This modelling challenge is the focus of this PhD. The project will review FOW and Aquaculture design requirements to identify suitable hybrid design case studies. These will be used to develop the numerical tools and conducted physical validation tests within the COAST laboratory. The verified model will then be used to provide design recommendations for hybrid FOW/aquaculture designs for the Celtic Sea.