CROWN

Cost Reduction for Offshore Wind Now

Summary

There is growing interest in the use of thermally sprayed aluminium (TSA)

to manage the corrosion of offshore wind turbine foundations as an
alternative to the current system of paint and sacrificial anodes, with the
objective of reducing the life cycle costs (both CAPEX and OPEX) of the
corrosion management system.

Forty years of offshore oil & gas experience backed by industrial research
indicates that TSA can provide 40 years of protection in the splash, tidal and
submerged zones of steel structures with longer inspection intervals and
little or no maintenance (TWI JIP19792). Some corrosion-related concerns
still remain, including mudline corrosion behaviour and internal monopile
corrosion.

Conventionally, paint and sacrificial anodes are applied after fabrication. The
need for secondary steelwork associated with anodes and the lengthy cure
times required for multi-layer marine paints add significant cost and slow
the serial production of foundations. Eliminating paint and anodes as the
corrosion protection system and replacing it with a single, TSA coating offers
the potential to speed production and lower costs. Removing the
requirement for anode cage connection may also reduce foundation
installation time and cost.

The CROWN project (funded by Innovate UK) brings together key members
of the offshore wind foundation supply chain (including major
developers/utilities, foundation fabricators, coating suppliers and research
institutes) to address outstanding corrosion and manufacturing challenges
in introducing TSA to the offshore wind sector. This will include a detailed
life-cycle cost model to quantify any cost savings that might be realised.

TWI Ltd, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)1223 899000
CROWN Cost Reduction for Offshore Wind Now

Thermally sprayed aluminium (TSA)

TSA primarily provides corrosion protection by forming a barrier between the steel and the seawater electrolyte.
However, TSA also provides local sacrificial protection to the steel and prevents corrosion, even if the coating is
damaged. The sacrificial effect results in a local change in pH at the exposed steel surface that favours the
precipitation of insoluble, calcareous material (such as CaCO3 and Mg(OH)2). This precipitation acts to reduce the
area of exposed cathode, reducing the current demand on the anodic coating. TSA coatings have been shown to
provide reliable, predictable coating corrosion rates <10m/yr.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1 (a) Paint corrosion mechanism, (b) TSA sacrificial corrosion protection mechanism and (c) mechanism
of precipitation of calcareous material.

The CROWN consortium

The CROWN consortium spans the offshore wind foundation corrosion protection supply chain and includes two
specialist research institutes: TWI Ltd and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

CROWN tasks

Corrosion
Laboratory: Damage tolerance, interaction with cathodic
protection, internal monopile corrosion
In situ: Offshore trials at two locations.

Manufacture CONTACT
Optimisation of jacket manufacturing sequence
Optimisation of monopile manufacturing sequence Henry Begg
Development of yellow topcoat compatible TSA
Email: henry.begg@twi.co.uk
Installation
Tel: 01223 899 565
Assessment of coating damage due to piling operations
Initial mudline corrosion assessment Dave Harvey
Modelling Email: dave.harvey@twi.co.uk
Numerical design modelling incorporating TSA
Life-cycle cost modelling Tel: 01223 899 525

TWI Ltd, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)1223 899000