Project description
Digital tools enhance understanding and rational design of offshore wind moorings
Floating offshore wind turbines – in deep waters where winds are stronger – play an important role in Europe’s clean energy transition but remain costly, with mooring foundations accounting for up to 30 % of expenses. Helical anchors (steel shafts with screw-like plates) could reduce costs with efficient installation, high load capacity and lower material costs. However, unprecedented engineering challenges with offshore demands remain poorly understood. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HELIWIND project aims to advance helical anchor technology through large-deformation modelling, parametric studies of soil-anchor interaction and a physics-informed, deep learning-based design tool. These advances could cut floating offshore wind costs and accelerate Europe’s energy transition.
Objective
Helical Anchor (HA)—steel shaft with helical plates—provides a cost-efficient solution for floating offshore wind (FLOW), a crucial element of the EU’s energy transition. FLOW costs remain high (2~4 times fixed-bottom systems), partly due to mooring foundations, which account for 20~30% of expenses. HA alleviates this through efficient installation, high capacity, and material savings.
Nevertheless, applying HA in FLOW poses unprecedented challenges: the required installation loads are orders of magnitude higher than onshore applications. While adjusting the advancement ratio can ease installation, key uncertainties remain in installation mechanics, soil-anchor interaction in layered seabeds, and anchor deformation.
The HELIWIND project aims to advance HA technology from TRL 3 to TRL 5 via prototyping through three objectives (R&IOs):
1) to develop and validate a 3D large-deformation model for HA installation in layered soils, using dual material models and centrifuge validation;
2) to perform parametric studies on soil behavior and anchor deformation to clarify interactions between installation, soil properties, and anchor deformation;
3) to build an intelligent tool integrating geotechnical and structural constraints with physics-informed deep learning to predict installation torque and thrust, and decide the optimized anchor geometry and material.
Using interdisciplinary expertise and University of Dundee resources, the project aims to deliver:
a) Advances in anchor-soil interaction and open-source tools;
b) Higher HA TRLs to cut FLOW costs and boost EU energy leadership;
c) Societal benefits via accelerated energy transition and reduced environmental impact.
The 24-month project comprises five work packages in modeling, analysis, tool development, dissemination, and management, backed by risk mitigation and training. Further, the HELIWIND fellowship is expected to accelerate the ER’s growth from emerging expert to global leader in offshore geotechnics.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology civil engineering water engineering ocean engineering
- engineering and technology environmental engineering geotechnics
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy wind energy
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning deep learning
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics geometry
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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DD1 4HN Dundee
United Kingdom
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