The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved the extension of the Offshore Megastructures collaborative research centre. This means the project will now move into the second funding period. The SFB 1463 comprises five research facilities at Leibniz University Hannover, which leads the project. In addition to LUH, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, the German Aerospace Center and the Technical Universities of Dresden and Darmstadt are participating in the project. Most of the participating institutes at Leibniz University Hannover and Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg already conduct joint research within the scope of the research collaboration ForWind.
The collaborative research centre (CRC) Offshore Megastructures is developing new concepts for tomorrow’s offshore wind turbines. The centre intends to make a significant contribution towards ensuring a successful energy transition. The CRC focuses on the physical and methodological foundations, based on the concept of a digital twin. It is developing simulation models that describe individual turbines over their entire working life and can be adapted in accordance with the conditions at any given time.
The advances made during the first funding period convinced the DFG to continue funding the CRC. Among other things, the researchers have so far provided an initial digital twin which takes into account the associated loads – the impacts of air, wave and current forces, as well as the interaction with the ocean floor – which megastructures in the ocean are exposed to.
In the second funding period, the focus will primarily be the validation and verification of new methods. In addition to other locations, the research will be carried out at the Coastal Research Centre’s Large Wave Flume (GWK+) in Hannover, which was expanded during the first funding period and is one of a kind in the world. Measurements will also be taken at the new onshore research wind park WiValdi, at an offshore wind park and in the Turbulent Wind Tunnel in Oldenburg.
