Improved splash and tidal zone coatings for a 40-year design life (additive manufacturing)
Acronym: IMPCOAT
Status: Completed
Strong interest in increasing off shore wind turbine life to 40 years, will require foundations that withstand splash and tidal corrosion without maintenance. Designers currently manage corrosion through additional material allowance and organic coatings, but these are inadequate for longer life due to prohibitive increases in structural mass and limited organic coating durability. 25 years of oil sector experience indicates that thermally-sprayed aluminium (TSA) based coatings off er 40-year protection switching to TSA-based coatings, gives a major opportunity to reduce signifi cantly coating application costs and to eliminate the fabrication bottleneck due to painting. Improved coating formulations based on TSA, modified-TSA compositions and novel sealants will be evaluated. Quantitative coating corrosion measurement techniques will be developed and a ruggedised coating performance monitoring unit will be validated at an off shore site. The data generated will provide confi dence that coatings can be applied with a 40-year life expectancy.