Screw (or helical) piles are foundations which are screwed into the ground. They are widely used onshore for supporting motorway signs and gantries as they possess good tensile and compressive resistance. This project aims to make screw piles a more attractive foundation (or anchoring) option offshore for wind farms, which are being deployed in deeper water and subject to increasing performance demands. The UK has challenging targets for expansion of energy from renewables with the potential for over 5000 offshore wind turbines by 2020. The necessary move to deeper water will increase cost and put greater demands on subsea structures and foundations. The current foundation solutions being considered for these applications are driven piles, large monopiles or concrete gravity based structures (GBS). Driving of piles in large numbers offshore causes concerns over plant availability and impact on marine mammals. There are also concerns over the limit of practical monopile development and the high material demands of GBS. Screw piles have the potential to overcome these issues and are scalable for future development from current onshore systems which have relatively low noise installation and are efficient in terms of both tensile and compressive capacity. To meet offshore demands, screw piles will require geometry enhancement but it is envisaged that these will initially be modest to allow de-risked transfer of onshore technology offshore. This will lead to the deployment of several smaller piles or pile groups rather than moving straight to very large single screw piles that may prove difficult to install and require significant investment. To allow screw piles to be considered as a foundation solution for offshore wind this project will develop piles with optimised geometries that minimise resistance to installation but are capable of carrying high lateral and moment loads. In order to install screw piles torque devices are used to effectively screw the anchors into the ground. With increased pile size requirements and potential changes in geometry this project will develop improved, less empirical techniques to predict the torque required in a variety of soil conditions. This will allow confidence in pile installation and investment in appropriately sized installation plant. As new pile geometries are being developed these will need to be tested (through model, numerical and field testing in this project) to verify that they can meet the performance demands of the offshore environment. The project will also develop bespoke analysis techniques to allow consulting geotechnical engineers the tools they require to design the foundations and contractors the tools to inform the installation processes. As piles can be deployed as large single units or smaller units in groups the efficiency of group deployment and multiple foundation geometries will be explored, as using several smaller geometry foundations could reduce the risks during offshore installation and actually be more economic due to lower fabrication costs and demands on installation plant. The areas of investigation above will be combined to produce a design and decision making toolkit for use by geotechnical designers to allow deployment of screw piles as offshore foundations in an efficient and cost effective manner. The research has the potential to make it easier to deploy screw pile foundations for offshore renewables. This project will develop foundations able to deal with current water depths and will provide understanding of the behaviour of piles as water depths and the demands on the foundations increase. By harnessing the installation and performance benefits of screw pile/anchor technology, the results of the project will contribute to an overall cost reduction in electricity generated by renewable means and increase the public's confidence in the future viability of this energy source.

Soil ploughing, an activity carried out by man for thousands of years for agriculture, is now used at a much larger scale on the seabed to connect offshore energy production and generation devices to the supply network. In the next 50 years many more of these offshore devices (wind, wave, current and oil & gas) will be installed, meaning that considerably more seabed ploughing will be undertaken. However, we do not possess the same level of understanding of the mechanical and hydraulic processes associated with soil ploughing as we have developed for other soil-structure interaction problems. This means that ploughing schemes and equipment have to be designed on the basis of semi-empirical and conservative approaches, leading to financial uncertainty. In this project, new computational methods will be applied to the simulation of seabed ploughing to provide better estimates of key parameters such as the towing force and speed of ploughing in a given seabed deposit along with insights into plough stability. Given the likely ploughing activity in the next 20-50 years in UK waters and elsewhere, we expect that this new predictive approach will result in major savings for industry.

Minerals are essential for economic development, the functioning of society and maintaining our quality of life. Consumption of most raw materials has increased steadily since World War II, and demand is expected to continue to grow in response to the burgeoning global population and economic growth, especially in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and other emerging economies. We are also using a greater variety of metals than ever before. New technologies such as those required for modern communication and computing and to produce clean renewable, low-carbon energy require considerable quantities of many metals. In the light of these trends there is increasing global concern over the long-term availability of secure and adequate supplies of the minerals and metals needed by society. Of particular concern are 'critical' raw materials (E-tech element), so called because of their growing economic importance and essential contribution to emerging 'green' technologies, yet which have a high risk of supply shortage. The following E-tech elements are considered to be of highest priority for research: cobalt, tellurium, selenium, neodymium, indium, gallium and the heavy rare earth elements. Some of these E-tech elements are highly concentrated in seafloor deposits (ferromanganese nodules and crusts), which constitute the most important marine metal resource for future exploration and exploitation. For example, the greatest levels of enrichment of Tellurium are found in seafloor Fe-Mn crusts encrusting some underwater mountains. Tellurium is a key component in the production of thin film solar cells, yet is prone to security of supply concerns because of projected increased demand resulting from the widespread deployment of photovoltaic technologies; low recycling rates; and its production as a by-product from copper refining. As a result, it is vital to assess alternative sources of supply of tellurium and the other E-tech elements, the largest source of which is held as seafloor mineral deposits. Our research programme aims to improve understanding of E-tech element concentration in seafloor mineral deposits, which are considered the largest yet least explored source of E-tech elements globally. Our research will focus on two key aspects: The formation of the deposits, and reducing the impacts resulting from their exploitation. Our primarily focus is on the processes controlling the concentration of the deposits and their composition at a local scale (10's to 100's square km). These will involve data gathering by robotic vehicles across underwater mountains and small, deep-sea basins off the coast of North Africa and Brazil. By identifying the processes that result in the highest grade deposits, we aim to develop a predictive model for their occurrence worldwide. We will also address how to minimise the environmental impacts of mineral exploitation. Seafloor mining will have an impact on the environment. It can only be considered a viable option if it is environmentally sustainable. By gathering ecological data and experimenting with underwater clouds of dust that simulate those generated by mining activity, we will explore of extent of disturbance by seafloor mineral extraction. Metal extraction from ores is traditionally very energy consuming. To reduce the carbon footprint of metal extraction we will explore the novel use of organic solvents, microbes and nano-materials. An important outcome of the work will be to engage with the wider community of stakeholders and policy makers on the minimising the impacts of seafloor mineral extraction at national and international levels. This engagement will help inform policy on the governance and management of seafloor mineral exploitation.

Minerals are essential for economic development, the functioning of society and maintaining our quality of life. Consumption of most raw materials has increased steadily since World War II, and demand is expected to continue to grow in response to the burgeoning global population and economic growth, especially in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and other emerging economies. We are also using a greater variety of metals than ever before. New technologies such as those required for modern communication and computing and to produce clean renewable, low-carbon energy require considerable quantities of many metals. In the light of these trends there is increasing global concern over the long-term availability of secure and adequate supplies of the minerals and metals needed by society. Of particular concern are 'critical' raw materials (E-tech element), so called because of their growing economic importance and essential contribution to emerging 'green' technologies, yet which have a high risk of supply shortage. The following E-tech elements are considered to be of highest priority for research: cobalt, tellurium, selenium, neodymium, indium, gallium and the heavy rare earth elements. Some of these E-tech elements are highly concentrated in seafloor deposits (ferromanganese nodules and crusts), which constitute the most important marine metal resource for future exploration and exploitation. For example, the greatest levels of enrichment of Tellurium are found in seafloor Fe-Mn crusts encrusting some underwater mountains. Tellurium is a key component in the production of thin film solar cells, yet is prone to security of supply concerns because of projected increased demand resulting from the widespread deployment of photovoltaic technologies; low recycling rates; and its production as a by-product from copper refining. As a result, it is vital to assess alternative sources of supply of tellurium and the other E-tech elements, the largest source of which is held as seafloor mineral deposits. Our research programme aims to improve understanding of E-tech element concentration in seafloor mineral deposits, which are considered the largest yet least explored source of E-tech elements globally. Our research will focus on two key aspects: The formation of the deposits, and reducing the impacts resulting from their exploitation. Our primarily focus is on the processes controlling the concentration of the deposits and their composition at a local scale (10's to 100's square km). These will involve data gathering by robotic vehicles across underwater mountains and small, deep-sea basins off the coast of North Africa and Brazil. By identifying the processes that result in the highest grade deposits, we aim to develop a predictive model for their occurrence worldwide. We will also address how to minimise the environmental impacts of mineral exploitation. Seafloor mining will have an impact on the environment. It can only be considered a viable option if it is environmentally sustainable. By gathering ecological data and experimenting with underwater clouds of dust that simulate those generated by mining activity, we will explore of extent of disturbance by seafloor mineral extraction. Metal extraction from ores is traditionally very energy consuming. To reduce the carbon footprint of metal extraction we will explore the novel use of organic solvents, microbes and nano-materials. An important outcome of the work will be to engage with the wider community of stakeholders and policy makers on the minimising the impacts of seafloor mineral extraction at national and international levels. This engagement will help inform policy on the governance and management of seafloor mineral exploitation.

The proposed research is part of a long-term research agenda to develop High Value Manufacturing (HVM) products with longer functional life and lower whole life cost. The research will deliver to the recently published national strategy on 'engineering services' and a 2025 vision - achieving our goal of 20% reduction in whole life cost with 20% increase in availability during the life of a product across more than £20bn of UK manufacturing sector output. A White Paper on 'Making Things Work. Engineering for life - developing a strategic vision' (Cranfield University, 2015), recognised that the UK has a declining 5% share of a rising global market in 'service and support' that currently exceeds £490 billion. Over 50% of the revenue comes from export. The global market will grow to £710 billion by 2025 [IBISWorld Industry report on Global Engineering Services, 2015]. Despite this there are around 107,000 people working in the "sector" in the UK with average wages 1.5 times those in wider manufacturing [Office of National Statistics (ONS) Data, Dec 2014]. Today more than 50% of revenue in the aerospace and defence sectors comes from the service contracts. For example the Rolls- Royce 'Total Care' contracts and related support activities. The contracts would never have been so successful without underpinning 'through-life performance' research. Both the Foresight Report on 'The Future of Manufacturing: A new era of opportunity and challenge for the UK' (The Government Office for Science, London, 2013) and the White Paper portray the importance of developing engineering services and support capability but recognise there is little underpinning science and good practice available to the extended service supply chain needed for UK competitiveness and productivity. This platform grant will contribute to an increase of around 3% (a total of 8%) in the UK's share of the global market. The aim of the platform grant is to sustain a world leading team with strategic research capability on through-life performance improvement, including complex in-situ degradation assessment technologies. The team between Cranfield and Nottingham Universities have worked together over the last ten years. They have a very strong portfolio of current research projects and publication record, this research will develop the team as an international centre of excellence in 'through-life performance improvement'. This is the only research group internationally focusing on this area in respect of HVM. The grant will accelerate career of the world-class researchers and support them to become internationally leading researchers. Current research capabilities still focus upon single degradation modelling and assessment. There is however, a significant lack of knowledge and models for compound degradation (e.g. the interaction of more than one failure mechanism; corrosion, fatigue and the role temperature plays in modifying the degradation processes). The research will take on a challenge to study and model compound degradations for mechanical components, give feedback on the degradation to design and manufacturing and develop instrumentation to assess (i.e. measure size and depth) the degradations in-situ, including in in-accessible areas. Understanding degradation science better (both single and then compound) is essential to extend the life of mechanical components and therefore availability of the HVM products. In-situ assessment of the compound degradation through very small service access holes will reduce the maintenance cost significantly. The research team will be supported by partner organisations: Rolls-Royce, Bombardier, Network Rail, SMD Ltd, HVM Catapult, XP School. They will directly benefit from the research along with other 500 HVM Companies.