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Challenges in hazard assessment for offshore wind installations

Challenges in hazard assessment for offshore wind installations

Stavroula Kontoe

Associate Professor at the University of Patras, Greece

Abstract:
The global expansion of offshore wind installations in deeper waters and regions with moderate to high seismic activity, such as China, Japan, and the USA, has posed new challenges in hazard assessments conducted for their safe construction and resilient operation. Depending on their location, offshore wind installations may face a range of seismic related hazards (seabed rupture, ground shaking, tsunamis, liquefaction), submarine landslides in addition to, or in combination with, harsh metocean conditions and extreme weather events like cyclones. A systematic design approach is essential, considering the exposure of offshore installations to various hazards from multiple sources and establishing clear performance criteria for different exposure levels. This can be accomplished by adopting comprehensive site characterization strategies and reliable numerical analysis tools.

Biography:
Stavroula Kontoe is Associate Professor at the University of Patras and Visiting Reader at Imperial College London, specialising in the development and application of numerical methods to study the performance of geotechnical structures under static, dynamic and seismic loading. She has authored over 130 peer-reviewed publications, having received the 2008 and 2022 BGA Medals, the 2012 Computers & Geotechnics outstanding reviewer award, the 2017 Shamsher Prakash Foundation Excellence in Geotechnical Teaching prize and the 2019 and 2021 David Hislop ICE awards for the best paper on offshore matters. She has been active as specialist consultant and as member of several International and National Committees (TC203 of ISSMGE, EEAE, IAEE), served as Chair of the UK Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics (SECED) for the period 2020-2022, while she is currently the vice chair of the Hellenic Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (HSSMGE). She is Editor for Computers and Geotechnics and serves at editorial boards of other journals (SDEE, JEE).