Structural Engineering and Materials

This research theme addresses the integrity, durability, and performance of offshore wind energy systems by combining expertise in structural mechanics, advanced materials, and monitoring technologies.

It encompasses fatigue and fracture analysis, tribology, and corrosion of metallic and composite components; geotechnical and hydrodynamic interactions; and the development of digital tools such as numerical simulations and drone-based inspection for structural health monitoring. The focus is on improving the reliability, safety, and efficiency of wind turbine structures, foundations, and drivetrains in harsh marine environments.

Our research group team leads:

• Prof. Bruno Stuyts – Focuses on offshore geotechnical engineering, including site characterization and foundation–soil interaction for wind turbines; develops data-driven methods to improve foundation design under cyclic offshore loading.
• Prof. Dieter Fauconnier – Focuses on drivetrain reliability and lubrication; studies lubricants and tribological behavior in wind turbine gearboxes/bearings and also addresses blade leading-edge erosion, aiming to reduce wear and damage in turbine components.
• Prof. Evert Lataire – Expert in hydrodynamics of ships and floating structures; studies the behavior of floating wind turbine platforms and vessels in waves and currents, using experimental and computational fluid dynamics to ensure stability and safe operations offshore.
• Prof. Hiep Luong – Specializes in drone-based inspection and remote sensing for offshore structures (e.g. to detect blade damages or erosion severity); expertise includes image processing, 3D reconstruction, and computer vision techniques such as sensor fusion, feature extraction, and GPU-accelerated image analysis to support structural health monitoring and digital twin development.
• Prof. Joris Degroote – Develops numerical simulation tools for aeroelastic and servo-control analysis of turbines; investigates fluid–structure interaction in wind energy (e.g. blade deflection under wind loads) and aero-servo-elastic models, contributing to better control and design of turbines.
• Prof. Kim Van Tittelboom - Has expertise in the development of cementitious materials which could be 3D-printed. For marine infrastructure applications these materials are further engineered to become bio-receptive and as such ideally suited for 3D printing of artificial oyster reefs.
• Prof. Kim Verbeken – Materials scientist investigating environmentally assisted degradation in marine environments; focuses on corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement and cathodic (over)protection of metals (e.g. bearing steels) used in offshore applications.
• Prof. Kris Hectors - Studies metal fatigue, and develops advanced numerical tools to improve the accuracy of stress-based fatigue design for large-scale welded steel structures, such as floating and fixed-bottom wind turbines and other multi-use floating platforms. Bridging the gap between computationally expensive high-fidelity models and faster low-fidelity alternatives is a key aspect of his work. 
• Prof. Patrick De Baets – Specialist in tribology (friction and wear) of mechanical components; works on large-scale bearing testing and tribo-materials to improve reliability of wind turbine drivetrains, modeling wear and developing condition monitoring for rotating parts.
• Prof. Peter Troch – Leads coastal engineering research on wind-wave-structure interaction; uses numerical and experimental methods to study how offshore structures (fixed or floating) behave under waves/currents and explores hybrid energy concepts (combining wind, wave, solar).
• Prof. Tom Depover – Metallurgical engineer researching material degradation in marine environments; investigates metal corrosion, fatigue and hydrogen embrittlement issues in offshore wind components (e.g. effects of seawater and hydrogen on metals).
• Prof. Wim De Waele – Specializes in structural integrity of wind turbine components, with focus on fatigue life analysis, fracture mechanics, and advanced joining techniques (including additive manufacturing) for offshore structures.
• Prof. Wim Van Paepegem – Expert in composite materials and mechanical design of wind turbine blades; works on experimental and computational analysis of blade structures, fatigue of composite materials, and development of new blade materials.