Integrating bibliometric analysis into civil engineering research: a case study on advancements in dynamic evaluation of floating offshore wind turbines

Date of Award

12-2025

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Civil and Construction Engineering

First Advisor

Xiaoyun Shao, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Hexu Liu, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Shrabanti Roy, PhD.

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Abstract Only

Restricted to Campus until

12-1-2035

Abstract

Bibliometric Analysis (BA) has emerged to be a vital tool in civil engineering research, effectively for organizing, evaluating, and representing the rapidly expanding body of engineering knowledge. Despite its growing use, bibliometric applications in civil engineering lack a comprehensive synthesis of methodological practices. This study aims to evaluate and advance methodological practices in BA as a knowledge representation tool, thereby enhancing the understanding and application of these techniques to scholarly literature evaluation. A systematic review of 15 peer-reviewed civil engineering BA papers, published between 2019 and 2024, evaluates the application of BA methods across four key areas: construction, structural, infrastructure, and renewable energy engineering. Each paper was examined in terms of its BA objectives, data sources, keyword selection, result filtering, BA software, performance analysis, and science mapping techniques. Scopus and Web of Science were the predominant data sources, with VOSviewer as the most widely used visualization tool. The filtering process refined the dataset for analysis, with the key keyword co-occurrence threshold ranging from 3 to 30 to optimize keyword network. Citation and keyword co-occurrence analyses were the most common methods, though clustering strategies and threshold settings varied widely. Furthermore, the reviewed papers reveal gaps in methodological transparency, particularly concerning the keyword selection criteria, unjustified threshold values, and lack of thesaurus file explanations. By synthesizing these methodological practices, the study contributes insights that enhance the clarity, transparency, and reliability of bibliometric applications, strengthening their role in knowledge-intensive decision-making in engineering domains.

Building upon this methodological foundation, the present study applies BA to a focused domain within civil and structural engineering—Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs). 1,182 publications (2016–2026) to examine how numerical simulation and experimental methods have influenced the design and FOWTs. Unlike fixed-bottom Offshore Wind Turbines (OWTs), FOWTs are deployed in deep-water regions, where coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic interactions between wind, wave, and mooring systems significantly affect dynamic behavior and structural stability. The findings show a shift from traditional motion prediction toward integrated, AI-assisted, and performance-driven frameworks for next-generation FOWTs. Future research should strengthen the connection between experimental validation and optimization-based control to advance adaptive, cost-efficient, and intelligent floating wind turbine systems.

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