Validation of Out-of-Chamber Electron Beam Welding for the Fabrication of Offshore Wind Turbine Support Structures
Status: Project
Date Announced: June, 2022
Project reference: 35567
TWI has launched Joint Industry Project (JIP) concerned with the qualification and codification of out-of-chamber electron beam welding. The project has now started and still open for more partners to join.
Project Concept
Out-of-chamber electron beam (EB) welding is a high-productivity welding process suitable for welding sections of 40-160mm thickness and is of interest for large tubular structures, such as monopiles, as it offers the possibility of significant fabrication cost reduction and potentially longer fatigue lifetimes.
Recent advancements of the out-of-chamber EB welding process in the RapidWeld Project (Innovate UK ref: 71824) have shown that thick-section steels of 85mm can be successfully welded in a single pass with exceptional mechanical properties, and fatigue strength which is at least as good as that of the equivalent submerged arc welds (SAW).
Significant material cost savings and a potential productivity increase of 80% can be achieved using this disruptive technology when compared to the conventional SAW process route.
The scope of this Joint Industry Project (JIP) is to continue the validation of the EB welding process and to generate the fatigue data required to gain approval of the EB welding process for use in wind turbine support structure fabrication by relevant certification bodies, such as DNV.
Objectives
- Establish out-of-chamber EB welding capabilities for a range of thicknesses and steel grades suitable for the fabrication of offshore wind support structures.
- Generate fatigue data to demonstrate the performance of out-of-chamber EB welds and compare with the qualification requirements of relevant certification bodies.
- Produce a Recommended Practice for using out-of-chamber EB welding for offshore wind support structure fabrication.
Benefits
This JIP will establish the range of applicability of EB welding and provide fatigue data, forming the basis of approval of the EB process by the relevant certification bodies. Once the use of EB welding is approved, fabricators and operators will be able to benefit from the increased productivity that EB welding provides. If, as the initial data suggests, EB welds have a higher fatigue performance than SAW welds, significant savings could be realised, through the use of thinner wall thicknesses, or the justification of longer lifetimes.
If you are interested in finding out more, see the PDF download. If you would like to join this JIP, please contact us.