University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University of Galway, University College Cork, Munster Technological University and Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions
WindLEDeRR
PhD Researchers

PhD Researchers

Mahdis Ashkarkalaei

Mahdis is a PhD student in the School of Civil Engineering at UCD, primary supervised by Dr. Abdollah Malekjafarian and co-supervised by Prof. Vikram Pakrashi. She has a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. She is working on WindLEDeR project funded by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) where she will develop a novel framework for lifetime extension of onshore wind turbines using structural health monitoring approaches.

Mitra Abed

Mitra is a PhD student in the department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering at MTU, primary supervised by Dr Vesna Jaksic and co-supervised by Mr Kieran Ruane (MTU) and Dr Paul Leahy (UCC). She obtained a Master’s degree in structural engineering from Semnan University, Semnan. Mitra currently works on the WindLEDeRR project which is funded by the SEAI. The main objective of Mitra’s research is development of a decision support tool for repurposing of decommissioned wind turbine blades. The project includes development of inspection procedures, material characterization, wind turbine mapping, and structural testing.

Ayaz Ahmad

Ayaz Ahmad is a doctoral researcher at University of Galway within the Sustainable and Resilient Structures research group. Prior to joining University of Galway, he was a lecturer in Civil Engineering at COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus for four years. He has published widely (>40 publications) on sustainable materials and the application of novel machine learning techniques . In the WindLEDeRR project, he is focused on developing a new methodology for predicting remaining fatigue life and residual strength of wind turbines’ blades periodically until their end-of-life, which is being done in collaboration with EireComposites, who are a design, manufacturing and testing company involved in lightweight high performance fibre-reinforced composites materials.

James McAuliffe

“James is a PhD student in the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, supervised by Dr. Breiffni Fitzgerald. James has a Master’s degree in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering also from Trinity College Dublin. He is currently working on the WindLEDeR project under funding from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). James will develop a holistic structural dynamic model of wind turbines following a multi-body approach, Kane’s method. The multi-body dynamic model will account for the aeroelastic behaviour of the wind turbines and will be coupled with a 3D finite element model of the foundations, resulting in a fully coupled aero-elastic-servo-soil model of a HAWT. James will use these models to assess fatigue in wind turbine blades and towers using a data-driven machine learning approach.”