OWEA

Assessment of organic and hybrid coating systems for the protection of offshore wind power structures.
Tags:

OWEA

Project

Federal State of Bremen, Germany

Fundings

Fraunhofer IFAM, Hempel A/S

Main partners

Dr. Andreas Momber

Contact

Assessment of organic and hybrid coating systems for the protection of offshore wind power structures

Offshore wind power structures are situated in a highly corrosive and difficult to control environment. This situation requires effective and reliable protective measures, including the application of protective coating systems. Direct comparisons between plainly organic coatings, hybrid-coatings and thermally sprayed coating had not been investigated in a systematic way. This project was concerned with the performance of coating systems under accelerated laboratory testing and under long-term site exposure (immersed, splash zone) as well as their behavior during electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements.

The following results are achieved:

  • Specially designed site samples were manufactured and deployed for the first time.
  • Hybrid coatings consisting of thermally prayed ZnAl and organic coatings performed best during the laboratory tests and the site exposure test.
  • Thermally sprayed AlMg coatings with thick organic top coats did not perform well under immersed exposure conditions
  • Results obtained from corrosion experiments and EIS measurements are not comparable.


Coated samples at the splash zone of the exposure site at Helgoland.


Coated samples at the splash zone of the exposure site at Helgoland.


Specially designed specimen for immersed exposure tests. 
Manufactured and coated in Muehlhan’s lab.