Danish outfit LIC Engineering is managing a project to further the development of metallic coatings with “potential self-healing properties” to combat corrosion on offshore wind turbine foundations.
The Crown project is an industry partnership looking into how thermally sprayed aluminium (TSA) can reduce costs associated with the use of sacrificial anodes to protect foundations against the corrosive effect of the marine environment, LIC said
Used on a “whole-foundation scale”, TSA coatings have the potential to allow entire offshore structures to become “one giant anode”, said LICenergy senior structural design engineer Diego Cocco.
“Although TSA and other metallic coating variants have been used in other industries, and on a relatively small scale within offshore wind, the full potential of the coating system is yet to be fully realised,” he added.
Crown is developing industry guidelines on the use of TSA and carrying out performance testing of the material.
Image: reNEWS
Danes have offshore covered
By EBS