Innovation from our students ignites the hope for a sustainable future. Congratulations on your publication, Joseph Habib Dagher, and team; Dr. Andrew Goupee and Dr. Anthony Viselli! #StudentsFirst UMaine Research
I am pleased to share my first journal article of my PhD! In this paper, we introduce a novel rapid preliminary design tool for minimizing substructure masses. Using this tool, we present a validation case study with the VolturnUS-S, and examine design trends for mass-optimized concrete VolturnUS hulls across the 10-30 MW range for three different wave environments. Our findings reveal that the mass-efficiency of hulls improves as turbine capacity increases from 10 MW to 30 MW, although the rate of improvement decreases. We also showed that the mass efficiency of hull designs diminishes with more severe wave environments. While there are potential gains in mass-efficiency with larger turbines, these benefits taper off in the 20-30 MW range compared to the 10-20 MW range. Furthermore, significant practical barriers related to constructability, industrialization, and deployment currently limit the feasibility of moving to the higher end of the turbine capacity range presented. Thank you to my advisors Dr. Andrew Goupee and Dr. Anthony Viselli for your invaluable support and mentorship throughout this work! Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/e9S-P2q3 #RenewableEnergy #OffshoreWind #FOWT #VolturnUS #SustainableEngineering #PhDResearch