Evaluation of Anticorrosion Coatings for Offshore Wind Turbine Monopiles for an Optimized and Time-Efficient Coating Application

Nevena Marinova,Pablo Benguria,Aiala Urbegain,Andreu Travé,Raúl Caracena

doi:10.3390/coatings12030384

Abstract

Offshore corrosion is a critical issue for metallic offshore structures. In this study, we investigated the corrosion protection of 12 coating systems for offshore monopiles in atmospheric, splash, and submerged zones, and we compared their performance under accelerated laboratory testing according to ISO 12944 with real field exposure. The results showed that the aging of the coatings did not accelerate at the same rate in all coatings. Furthermore, we observed that for some types of laboratory tests, the results are not representative of real field exposure as the laboratory test is much less aggressive than the real offshore conditions. This observation confirms that the field exposure data provide valuable information in order to properly assess the corrosion protection of coatings and thus the expected lifetime of the offshore structure. Additionally, we analyzed the rate-determining steps involved in the application of the coating onto the entire monopile and quantified the possibility of achieving a more time efficient coating process. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the issues related to testing and qualification of corrosion protection coatings for offshore structures and provide useful insights for the selection of coating solutions at the industrial level.

Highlights

Corrosion is a critical phenomenon to be considered in the design, construction, commissioning, and operation lifetime of offshore structures such as offshore wind generators
We investigated the corrosion protection of 12 coating systems for offshore monopiles and compared their performance under accelerated laboratory testing and real field exposure
The results showed that the aging of the coatings did not accelerate at the same rate in all coatings

Summary

Introduction

Corrosion is a critical phenomenon to be considered in the design, construction, commissioning, and operation lifetime of offshore structures such as offshore wind generators. Since these installations usually operate at remote locations with difficult access, revision and maintenance are complicated, and repair in the case of failure is challenging. For this reason, the selection of a corrosion protection system for offshore wind generators is a key process that can have a very serious effect on the future lifetime and maintenance of the structure [1]. ISO 12944:9 [2] and ISO 12944:2 [3] define three specific environments to which the metallic offshore structure is exposed: atmospheric zone, splash zone, and submerged zone (Table 1, Figure 1)

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