Organization of the port layout for the efficient dismantling and decommissioning of offshore wind turbines

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Nyhuis
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 577405502

The main goal of the project is to develop design guidelines for the planning and operation of layout areas in port facilities for the dismantling and shredding of offshore wind turbines (OWT). This involves identifying, discussing, and evaluating the factors and conditions influencing the design of layout areas and the dismantling process. These factors include necessary maneuvering and storage areas, available technical resources, required technologies, and dismantling and transportation costs. A key objective is to develop a method for dynamically arranging functional areas within a layout based on the decision of which dismantling activities should occur at the port facility (dismantling depth). This optimization problem aims to cover the dynamic planning and evaluation of layout variants, considering the dismantling depth of OWT components as a variable input. The dismantling depth can vary between layout phases, allowing certain components to be fully dismantled in some phases and only partially in others, for transport to dismantling factories or landfills in the hinterland. The research project is divided into three sub-objectives: 1. Discussion and Documentation of Planning Prerequisites: - Capturing and integrating necessary input information (e.g., time and cost factors of individual dismantling activities). - Identifying relevant influencing factors and conditions with industry partners. - Evaluating additional information on dismantling, transportation, and storage processes. 2. Modeling and Heuristic Solution of a Dynamic Layout Planning Problem: - Mathematically defining the identified influencing factors and conditions. - Modeling the temporal dynamics and the dismantling depth as decision variables. - Developing an objective function to evaluate the quality of solutions, considering costs (e.g., transport, dismantling, storage costs). 3. Investigation of the Influencing Factors on Layout Design: - Conducting a parameter study to analyze the impact of different dismantling strategies on layout planning. - Discussing and validating findings with an expert panel. - Developing practical design guidelines for the setup and operation of port layouts for the dismantling of offshore wind turbines. In summary, the project aims to reduce the overall space requirements and significantly increase the space utilization efficiency through detailed planning and design of the necessary space requirements using mathematical optimization algorithms for dynamic layout planning. This improvement is expected to positively impact the total dismantling costs of offshore wind farms.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr.-Ing. Malte Stonis