This PhD scholarship is offered by the Aura Centre for Doctoral Training in Offshore Wind Energy and the Environment; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Newcastle and Sheffield. The successful applicant will undertake a PG-Dip training year at the University of Hull and will continue their PhD research at Durham University.
For more information visit www.auracdt.hull.ac.uk. If you have a direct question about the project, you may email [Email Address Removed] or the project supervisor.
The offshore energy generation capacity is growing at a very fast rate and offshore wind is expected to provide the backbone of our electricity supply in 2050. Considering the need for cost effective, clean, and reliable energy, reliability of offshore wind energy systems is more important than ever.
One of the key underlying technologies used in modern wind energy conversion systems is Power Electronics. In all modern wind turbines, a power converter is placed between the generator and the grid to control the electricity generation. However, power converters are usually one of the most fragile parts of these systems and cause high downtime and maintenance costs in offshore wind systems. This project therefore proposes solutions for modelling and improving the reliability of power converters in offshore wind farms. The work will begin by developing a modelling framework for determining the power converters reliability in a wind farm as a function of the mission profiles of its turbines. This model will then be used to form an optimisation problem, where the objective will be to maximise the reliability while maintaining the power generated in the wind farm.
Running conventional electrothermal simulations can be extremely time consuming, therefore this project will aim to use Artificial Intelligence methods such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to generate accurate and fast models for estimating the remaining lifetime and reliability of power converters. The optimisation problem will then try to find an optimum solution for improving the reliability of the converters. Here, a suitable method (e.g., heuristic optimisation methods such as Particle Swarm Optimisation) will be used for solving the problem.
Entry requirements
This PhD research project is suitable for applicants with a background in Engineering, Computer Science or Mathematics and Statistics. If you have received a First-class Honours degree OR a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters OR a Distinction in a Masters Degree, with any Undergraduate Degree, in one of the above subjects, (or the international equivalents,) we would like to hear from you.
If your first language is not English, or you require Tier 4 student visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill.
How to apply
Applications are via the University of Hull online portal; you must download a supplementary application from the Aura CDT website, complete and submit.
For more information about the Aura CDT including links and detailed instructions on how to apply, please visit the website: https://auracdt.hull.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
Eligibility
Research Council funding for postgraduate research has residence requirements. Our Aura CDT scholarships are available to Home (UK) Students. To be considered a Home student, and therefore eligible for a full award, a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the scholarship (with some further constraint regarding residence for education). For full eligibility information, please refer to the EPSRC website. Please note, we have already allocated all our places for International Students to this cohort, so please do not apply unless you are a Home student.
Watch our introduction to the Aura CDT
Find out more about how our students are addressing some of the environmental and engineering challenges facing the offshore wind sector in our short video.
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