Geology for offshore wind installations in the North Sea SNII wind area
This Master's project was designed for Isabel Helle Michaelsen who started the Master's program in Earth sciences, UiB, fall 2024. The Master's project is given by the research group Quaternary geology & paleo climate.
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Project description
Offshore wind is set to become a major growth industry in Norway. As the world economy is decarbonizing, the demand for renewable green energy is very high and the NW European coast has excellent wind resources. Major parts of the NW European coast was recently glaciated, and glacial erosion and deposition has resulted in highly heterogeneous seabed soil conditions here. The NW European seas are therefore very challenging places to place anchors and foundations for offshore wind turbines. Improved geological understanding of these soil conditions can help bring costs down for future offshore wind.
This MSc project will utilize data from in situ cone penetration tests (CPTu), sedimentological, chronological, and geotechnical analyses on sediment cores as well as seismic data from high resolution 2D sub-bottom profiles collected from the S酶rlige Nordsj酶 II offshore wind farm area. The objective for this project is to elucidate the geological processes that have shaped the sea-bed sediments in the southern Norwegian North Sea and describe their geotechnical properties.
It will be possible to participate on marine geological cruises in 2025. This master project is part of the 4SWIND project funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN), Equinor and Geoprovider, and the InFluSE project funded by RCN, Equinor and Aker BP.
The MSc will work in these projects and be exposed to industry sponsors and stakeholders through various project meetings and conferences.
Proposed course plan during the master's degree (60 ECTS)
Semester
1.semester: GEOV272/10; GEOV364/5; GEOV300/5;
2.semester: BYGG115/10 (HVL); GEOV302/10; GEOV231/10; GEOV329/10; AG-342/10 (UNIS)
Note that there are more study credits than necessary, these are alternatives in case of collisions.
Field-, lab- and analysis work
TOPAS sub-bottom profiles, interpretation in Petrel and correlation with sediment core data
Sediment core analysis:
Geotechnical testing
Grain size analysis
XRF-core scanning
Visual description of cores
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