Maria James, Research Scholar, IIT Bhubaneswar

Maria James

Bio

Research Interests

Education

Awards And Achievements

Journal Publications

Conferences / Symposium

Position of Responsibilities

Bio

I am Maria James, a research scholar at the School of Infrastructure, IIT Bhubaneswar. My research focuses on the behaviour and resilience of offshore wind energy systems under climate change and multi-hazard loading conditions, including earthquakes, liquefaction, and extreme ocean environments. Using advanced numerical modelling and computational analysis, I investigate the performance of floating offshore wind turbines and their foundations to support the sustainable development of offshore renewable energy.

My interest in offshore engineering began during my M.Tech., where I worked on the seismic design of jacket-supported offshore wind turbines. Since then, I have been exploring the complex interactions between environmental loading, soil behaviour, and structural response, with the goal of developing practical solutions for future offshore infrastructure.

Research Topic: Risk Assessment of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines under Seismic and Climate-induced Hazards

Supervisor : Prof. Sumanta Haldar, School of Infrastructure, IIT Bhubaneswar

Co-Supervisor : Prof. Subhamoy Bhattacharya, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Surrey, UK

Research Interests

Offshore Geotechnics
Earthquake Engineering
Soil Dynamics
Finite Element Modelling
Soil Structure Interaction
Climate Change

Education

Ph.D. (Ongoing): School of Infrastructure, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bhubaneswar, India (CGPA:9.71)
MTech: Geotechnical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bhubaneswar, India (CGPA: 9.66, First Rank in Geotechnical Engineering Stream)
BTech: Civil Engineering, MG University, Kerala (8.46 CGPA, First Rank in class)
Plus Two: Vimala Public School, Kerala

Awards And Achievements

2022-26 : PMRF Fellow: Ranked among the top 1% of India’s highest-ranked doctoral researchers (Top 19) under the Prime Ministers Research Fellowship.

2025 : Fulbright Kalam Fellowship: Selected in the principal panel for doctoral research at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).

2024 : Visiting Scholar: Selected for research tenure at University of Surrey, UK.

2021 : Best Thesis Award: For MTech dissertation by the Ocean Society of India.

2021 : 2nd Prize: Best Proposal Award for 'Roadmap for Sustainable Ocean Development' (OSICON-21).

2025 : Travel Support: Received ITS from ANRF for ISFOG2025, France.

2019-2021 : MHRD Fellowship: Received fellowship to pursue MTech at IIT Bhubaneswar.

Journal Publications

James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2026). Predictive framework for liquefaction-induced pullout capacity of suction anchors in floating offshore wind systems. Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, 209, 110427. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2026.110427 .
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2026). Seismic vulnerability and performance assessment of floating offshore wind turbines considering soil-structure interaction. Engineering Structures, 348, 121815. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2025.121815
James, M., & Haldar, S. (2024). Design Strategies of Offshore Wind Turbines in Shallow and Deep Water-Indian Perspective. Indian Geotechnical Journal, 54(5), 1999-2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40098-024-01021-5
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2024). Impact of climate change on the design of multi-megawatt spar floating wind turbines. Marine Structures, 93, 103547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marstruc.2023.103547
James, M., & Haldar, S. (2022, September). Seismic vulnerability of jacket supported large offshore wind turbine considering multi-directional ground motions. In Structures (Vol. 43, pp. 407-423). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2022.06.049
Anoop, C. K., Noor, N., James, M., Paul, P. N., & Harikrishnan, R. (2018). Technological and green solutions for rural house construction. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), 5(4), 2291-2293. https://www.irjet.net/archives/V5/i4/IRJET-V5I4617
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. State-of-the-Art Review on Seismic Design Considerations of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines. Ocean Engineering (under 2nd review).
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. Climate Risk Assessment of Tension Leg Platform Offshore Wind Turbine under GHG Emission Scenario. ASCE-ASME (under review).

Conferences / Symposium

James, M., Haldar, S. & Bhattacharya, S. (2025). Seismic Vulnerability of 10 MW TLP Floating Wind Turbines in Intermediate Water Depth. ISFOG, Nantes, France. DOI: https://www.issmge.org/uploads/ publications/132/133/ISFOG2025-255.pdf
Nath, U., James, M., Haldar S. (2026). Seismic performance of fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind turbines. ISET Journal of Earthquake Technology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.63898/XWWZ9524
James, M., and Haldar, S. (2025). Numerical simulation of floating offshore wind turbines under environmental and seismic loading. GeoVadis. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003645955
James, M., Haldar, S., Bhattacharya, S. (2025). Performance-Based Design of Tension Leg Platform Wind Turbines under Combined Seismic and Environmental Loading. ICRAGEE 2024. Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-1417-2_17
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2024). Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Tension Leg Platform Wind Turbines. Indian Geotechnical Conference. (pp. 51-61). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-7791-7_4
James, M., & Joseph, K.J. (2023). Estimation of Design Wave Height off Southeast Coast of India. Eight National Conference of Ocean Society of India, OSICON-23, August 23-25, INCOIS, Hyderabad, India. https://osicon23.incois.gov.in/osicon23/report_details.jsp?reg_id=ABS-09-0473
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2024). Floating Wind Turbines- Feasibility along Indian Offshore. PMRF symposium (selected as the Highlighted Poster).
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2024). Impact of Climate Change on the Design of Tension Leg Platform Wind Turbine Along Indian Coastline. In Women Indian Geotechnical Conference (pp. 393-406). Springer Nature Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2038-8_33
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2023). Climate change effects on the design of spar floating offshore wind turbines. In Offshore Site Investigation Geotechnics 9th International Conference Proceeding (Vol. 1520, No. 1528, pp. 1520-1528). Society for Underwater Technology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3723/KPLZ7349
James, M., & Joseph, K.J. (2023). Estimation of Design Wave Height off Southeast Coast of India. OSICON-23.
James, M., Haldar, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2022). Seismic Response of Spar Floating Offshore Wind Turbine. In Indian Geotechnical Conference (pp. 331-341). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1741-5_29
James, M., Haldar, S. & Bhattacharya, S. (2022). Impact of climate change on the design of spar floating offshore wind turbines. ISOG. December 5-7, IIT Madras.
James, M. (2021). Floating hybrid offshore wind farms in the deep waters. OSICON-21 (Second Prize).
James, M., & Haldar, S. (2021). Seismic Design of Large Offshore Wind Turbine Considering Rocking Vibration. In Transportation, Water and Environmental Geotechnics (pp. 411-422). Springer, Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2260-1_40
James, M., Anoop, C.K., Noor, N., et al. (2018). Green Solution for Rural Housing. International Conference on Green Buildings and Sustainable Engineering (GBSE 2018), Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology, Kerala.

Book Chapter

James, M., Haldar, S., Varghese, R., Bhattacharya, S., & Pakrashi, V. (2023). Climate change effects on offshore wind turbines. In Wind Energy Engineering (pp. 413-422). Academic Press.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-99353-1.00030-X
James, M., Haldar, S., Bhattacharya, S. (2026). Performance Based Design of Spar, Semisubmersible and TLP Floating Wind Turbines under combined Seismic and Environmental Loading. In Offshore Wind Turbine Foundations: Advanced Geotechnical Engineering Approaches. Elsevier (Invited Book Chapter).

Google Scholar : ‪Maria James‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬

ResearchGate : Maria James (researchgate.net)

Curriculum Vitae: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yXOdpi_ikTHhUzKe8ahYZHJANKv5ifrD/view?usp=sharing

Teaching Experience

BTech Civil Engineering (Semester VIII)

January 2024 - May 2024

Department of Civil Engineering, Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Bhubaneswar, India

Course: Computer aided Engineering (Full course including preparation of question papers, projects, and assignments)

BTech Civil Engineering (Semester VI)

January 2023 - May 2024

Department of Civil Engineering, Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Bhubaneswar, India

Course: Geotechnical Engineering (Full course including laboratory, preparation of question papers, providing tutorial problems, projects, and assignments)

BTech Civil Engineering (Semester III)

August 2022 - December 2022

Department of Civil Engineering, Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM), Bhubaneswar, India

Course: Geotechnical Engineering (Full course including laboratory, preparation of question papers, providing tutorial problems, projects, and assignments)

Teaching Assistance at IIT-BBS

July 2020 ‒ till now

Department of Civil Engineering

Taking Laboratory classes and assisting in solving tutorial problems:

1. Soil Dynamics (Graduate level)

2. Computational Geomechanics Lab (Graduate level)

3. Soil Mechanics (Undergraduate Level)

4. Civil Engineering Drawing and Estimation (Undergraduate Level)

5. Soil Mechanics Laboratory (Undergraduate level)

6. Engineering Drawing (Undergraduate level)

PhD

Thesis title: Risk Assessment of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines under Seismic and Climate-induced Hazards (Thesis submitted)

Supervisors: Prof. Sumanta Haldar (IIT Bhubaneswar) and Prof. Subhamoy Bhattacharya (University of Surrey, UK)

Developed a fully coupled nonlinear finite element framework to assess floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) under seismic, liquefaction, and climate-induced hazards. Quantified the seismic vulnerability of spar, semisubmersible, and tension leg platform (TLP) systems, identifying critical failure mechanisms and developed the fragility-based risk assessment methods. A novel predictive framework for suction anchor capacity degradation under liquefaction is proposed, incorporating partial liquefaction effects and integrating the geotechnical failures into overall FOWT reliability assessment. The study further investigates anchor-platform interactions, collapse mechanisms, and climate change risks, providing design-oriented methodologies and improved safety recommendations for resilient future offshore wind infrastructure.

MTech Project

Thesis title: Seismic Response of Jacket supported Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT) in Deep waters

Supervisor: Prof. Sumanta Haldar, School of Infrastructure, IIT Bhubaneswar

The deformation and collapse vulnerability of a 10 MW jacket supported OWT considering different geometry of pile and jacket is examined. A three-dimensional finite element model of the soil-pile-jacket-tower is developed in Abaqus CAE. A performance-based analysis is conducted to quantify the engineering demand parameters by choosing first mode spectral acceleration Sa(T1) as the intensity measure. The significance of considering higher modes and the vertical component of the earthquake motion on the dynamic response of OWTs is evaluated. Susceptibility for the jacket foundation to initiate the first mode of vibration to be rocking mode is also investigated. Moreover, studied the effect of jacket base width and embedment length in resisting multi directional seismic loads. The findings of the study are useful for the optimal design of jacket foundation for OWTs in seismically active areas.

BTech Project

Thesis title: Technological Solution for Sustainable Rural Housing

Supervisor: Dr. Anoop C.K, Associate Professor, VJCET, Kerala

Carried out the project under PMAYG (Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin) in panchayath level by conducting surveys for the reconstruction and renovation of 14 twin houses situated in Avoly Grama Panchayath, Kerala. Prepared rehabilitation proposals for rural houses using technological and sustainable alternatives, which aims at the development of rural areas for a sustainable future.

Internship Project

Project Title : Estimation of Design Wave Height off Southeast Coast of India

Supervisor: Dr. K Jossia Joseph, Scientist E, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai

Estimated the design wave height off the southeast coast of India for a return period of 25, 50 and 100 years by utilizing the Gumbel distribution. The wave data measured by the Moored Data Buoys deployed by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Chennai is utilized in the study. The internship also provided the opportunity to explore new ideas on the field of civil engineering particularly the importance of environmental conditions in the design of offshore structures.

Invited Talk

Delivered an invited talk on "Floating offshore Wind Turbines: Challenges and Opportunities" during the occasion of the Memory of Karl Terzaghi, conducted by the Indian Geotechnical Society, Bhubaneswar chapter. October 2022.

Position of Responsibilities

Residential Warden

August 2024 - till now

Ganga Hall of Residence (GHR)

IIT Bhubaneswar

Student Co-Ordinator

Global Initiative through Academic Excellence (GIAN course)

Corse Name: Stochastic Soil Structure Interaction organized by IIT Bhubaneswar

Faculty: Prof Dipanjan Basu from University of Waterloo, Canada

Student Volunteer

Indian Symposium of Offshore Geotechnics (ISOG-2019)

International Symposium- December 2019

IIT Bhubaneswar

Student Co-Ordinator

Engineers Day Celebration-2022

IIT Bhubaneswar

Student Co-Ordinator

Arts Festival- Drishya-2017

Viswajyothi College of Engineering, Kerala

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