The Collaborative Research Centre ‘Integrated Design and Operation Methodology for Offshore Megastructures’ focuses on the energy transition and future energy supply with the help of so-called mega offshore wind turbines. The SFB aims to bring together previously separate construction-related processes such as design, manufacture, operation and dismantling of wind turbines and link them through a step-by-step digitalisation concept. In the long term, the network aims to provide new insights into the design and operation of structures with complex load-bearing behaviour.

The aim of the Collaborative Research Centre is to investigate physical and methodological principles based on the concept of a digital twin. The digital twin is a coupled overall model of a specific wind turbine that is adapted to the current state of the real structure with the aid of measurement data. This results in simulation models that describe individual, real turbines over their entire service life and can always be adapted to the current state. 

" With the help of the digital twin, future wind turbines can be designed and operated safely, economically and in a resource-efficient manner," explains Professor Rolfes, designated spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Centre. This enables turbines that offer more efficient power generation and more continuous power feed-in compared to today's models and – in terms of their performance – can be constructed more quickly and are cheaper to maintain. 

Four research institutions have joined forces under the leadership of Leibniz University Hannover to form the Collaborative Research Centre 1463 ‘Integrated Design and Operational Methodology for Offshore Megastructures’. In addition to LUH, the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, the German Aerospace Centre and the Technical University of Dresden are also involved. A total of ten institutes from the faculties of Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics and Physics, and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are involved at Leibniz University. Most of the participating institutes at Leibniz University Hannover and Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg are already networked in the ForWind research association. The project will run from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024, with the possibility of extension until 2032. The total funding amount is around 8.5 million euros.

(Sources: DFG, LUH)