Dr PierPaolo Ricci

Pierpaolo Ricci is a Chartered Naval Architect and Mechanical Engineer working in the marine and offshore industry since 2005. He held technical leadership and management positions in several renowned consultancies, contractors and developers.  He has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon and a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from University of Bologna.

His exceptional technical background is built on a unique combination of cutting-edge research in the offshore renewables and hands-on industry experience of design, construction and installation of offshore structures.  He led multi-disciplinary teams in the delivery of complex engineering projects and managed projects for the design, engineering, procurement and installation of floating systems for the O&G and renewable industry and he acted as recognised expert and advisor on behalf of public and private institutions on the development of marine renewable technologies, having authored several research papers, book chapters, and patents in the field of offshore engineering.

Pierpaolo is an expert on offshore hydrodynamics, naval architecture, and numerical modelling of floating structures.  Since he undertook his doctorate studies, he’s been refining tools, skills and methodologies for design and analysis of floating renewable systems using a range of commercial and self-developed software tools.He is a recognised expert in the design, analysis, and specification of mooring systems and subsea facilities, having led the design of several mooring projects up to the installation stage.

In the past decade, Pierpaolo has been increasingly involved in project development and project management of offshore renewable farms from the concept to the FEED stage, developing quality procedures, strategies, and tools for the conception, tendering, and execution. His recognition as a floating systems and mooring experts has led him to involvement in several due diligence and assessment tasks, acting as nominated expert for the likes of the European Commission and Wave Energy Scotland. Pierpaolo is known for his technical rigour and focus on results and is constantly driven to excellence and to provide the best answer to any challenge.

Talk to PierPaolo about:

• Offshore Hydrodynamics
• Mooring Design & Design
• Floating Structure Design
• Offshore Renewables Project Development
• Research Proposal for Funding

His most memorable project was the conception, design, and verification of a charging buoy developed by Maersk Supply for the offshore charging of support vessels to offshore wind farm.

The project started from the very early conception, considering different geometries and options and building an iterative design procedure including stability analysis, mooring design, cable dynamics and overall structure sizing.  The technology was completely novel and there was little experience on some elements, such as the suspended cable which needed to always maintain certain tensions.

The design was further advanced through interaction with the supply chain and the operators with an initial deployment location in a German offshore wind farm.  We also engaged constructively with DNV who, at the time, hadn’t released yet a standard for these technologies and would proceed to do so, also on the basis of our work.

He likes running and swimming and has been consistent in doing park runs several times a week over the past year, but his favourite pastime is spent on the couch, watching art films and listening to music.