Prof Ali Mehmanparast
Lab Director and Principal Investigator
Professor Ali Mehmanparast is an EPSRC Fellow, 125th Anniversary Chair and Professor of Offshore Renewable Energy Structures at the University of Birmingham.
He holds MEng and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA degree from Cranfield School of Management, and is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Manager (CMgr). His research focuses on structural design, integrity and life-extension of offshore renewable energy infrastructure, with particular interest in fatigue, fracture, corrosion-fatigue interaction, material ageing and residual stresses.
He has managed two successive EPSRC-funded Centres for Doctoral Training, REMS CDT and WAMSS CDT, which have collectively trained over 120 doctoral researchers across a broad range of disciplines related to offshore renewable energy. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and book chapters in the field of energy structures, and has organised and chaired multiple international conferences. He is an Editor of Engineering Failure Analysis (Elsevier) and serves on the editorial boards of several other leading international journals.
He leads WIND-PROLIFE, a five-year EPSRC Open Fellowship which brings together leading industrial partners to develop improved approaches for the design and long-term assessment of offshore wind structures. His research has also contributed directly to industry guidelines and international standards, including work from the SLIC Joint Industry Project that underpinned the introduction of a monopile-specific fatigue design curve in DNV-RP-C203.
Dr Machar Devine
Post-doctoral Researcher
Federico Della Santa
PhD Researcher
Madison Asbury
PhD Researcher
Moray Stiven
PhD Researcher
Yousuf Saleem
PhD Researcher
PhD alumni:
- Emmet McLaughlin
Fatigue Life Prediction of Offshore Wind Turbine Structures Using Advanced Numerical Modelling Techniques. Funded by EPSRC; completed in 2026 (Awaiting Viva). - Fraser O’Neill
The Durability of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Steel for Offshore Renewable Energy Structures. Funded by EPSRC; completed in 2026 (Awaiting Viva). - Dr Alessandro Annoni
Integrity Evaluation of Offshore Wind Turbine MP–TP Connection Technologies. Funded by EPSRC and TWI; completed in 2024. - Dr Anna Ermakova
Structural Integrity Assessment of Functionally Graded Components Created Using Additive Manufacturing Technology for Marine Applications. Funded by EPSRC; completed in 2023. - Dr Satya Anandavijayan
Material Pre-straining Effects on Fatigue and Fracture Behaviour of Offshore Wind Monopile Structures. Funded by EPSRC; completed in 2020. - Dr Jessica Taylor
Assessment of Crack Arrest Behaviour in Modern Structural Steels. Funded by EPSRC iCASE with TWI and Lloyd’s Register; completed in 2020. - Dr Abdulhakim Shittu
Structural Reliability Assessment of Offshore Wind Turbine Jacket-Type Support Structures Based on Fatigue Limit State. Funded by PTDF; completed in 2020. - Dr Victor Igwemezie
Corrosion-Fatigue Behaviour of Structural Steels in Offshore Wind Turbine Foundations. Funded by TETFUND; completed in 2019. - Dr Anaïs Jacob
The Influence of Residual Stresses on Structural Integrity of Renewable Energy Marine Structures. Funded by STFC; completed in 2019. - Dr Ali Alturaihi
The Influence of Partial Peening on Fatigue Crack Growth. Completed in 2017.