C1 - Structural Integrity in the Marine Environment (corrosion, fatigue, coatings etc.)
C - Materials and Manufacturing
Challenges/Opportunities
Corrosion and Fatigue degrade structural integrity and need to be better understood.
Solution
Experimental, Numerical and analytical damage models need to be developed, validated and verified for offshore structural integrity.
Context and Need
Offshore/marine renewables are subject to harsh deployment environments; corrosion fatigue is the primary progressive damage mechanism adversely affecting structural integrity and hence safety and LCoE; New markets, including USA and China, include extreme deployment conditions
Summary
Offshore wind components/assets need to withstand the harsh marine environment hence understanding of degradation mechanisms should warrant operability and safety of personnel.
Impact Potential
Expected potential impact is high in CAPEX/OPEX/survivability and safety.
Research Summary
Joint Industry Projects over the past 4-5 years have mainly tackled such issues, informing fatigue assessment practices. However issues remain concerning corrosion fatigue, in particular:
- EPSRC CAMREG project
- Carbon Trust Projects
- Major Delft Corrosion projects
- Offshore wind structural lifecycle industry collaboration (SLIC): Joint industry project