SDIEF is a joint collaboration between Cranfield and Imperial College London to enhance the fatigue life of offshore wind floating support structures.

With the growing interest in offshore wind energy and the limited number of shallow water sites worldwide, which are suitable for fixed foundation offshore wind turbines, deployment of offshore wind farms in deeper waters can be the start of a new chapter in offshore wind industry. An important challenge is to bring down the cost of floating offshore wind energy and make it competitive with the alternatives.

The aim of this project is to improve the structural design and integrity of the support structure in floating wind turbines by predicting and subsequently preventing corrosion pitting fatigue damage evolution and crack growth at the critical connection regions for normal and extreme loading conditions. This is a joint collaboration between structural integrity research groups at Cranfield University and Imperial College London.