Next Generation Marine Materials for Resilient Offshore Renewable Energy Devices

While innovativing technologies for offshore renewable energy device are gaining popularity, operating them in harsh marine environment is a complex and challenging process that jeopardizes the deployment of these very important technologies for the future generations. Wave Energy Conversion (WEC) devices are dynamic structures with components exposed to multiple loads and degradation mechanisms that are acting together, therefore subjected to multi-degradation mechanisms that are neither not always well understood nor the synergistic effects are considered. This lack of fundamental knowledge and lack of lab testing capable of simulating the complex multi-degradation mechanisms are one of the main reasons that are slowing the development and implementation of WEC devices. In the MORE (Next Generation Marine Materials for Resilient Offshore Renewable Energy Devices) proposes the creation of a new robust methodology with improved tools for material selection and validation to harmonize testing procedures capable of generating the next generation of materials for Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) devices, to overcome the present energy and environmental challenges. The first steps that have been taken to achieve this ambitious goal is the development of specifically tailored tests protocols that can reproduce those complex mechanisms in a lab scale and upscale it to large scale. New small scale multi degradation testing equipment have been designed in the last period and are ready to be constructed. Two different approaches are being followed to cover as many different multi degradation parameters. This is the first step to have fully controlled test at lab scale. In addition, the large scale multi degradation rigs have been updated and it is ready to start the initial tests bases on the selected materials proposed by the industry. Additionally, the testing protocols are already being discussed, including working parameters and samples geometries.

MORE (Next Generation Marine Materials for Resilient Offshore Renewable Energy Devices) proposes the creation of a new robust methodology with improved tools for material selection and validation to harmonize testing procedures capable of generating the next generation of materials for Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) devices, to overcome the present energy and environmental challenges. This will be achieved by considering tribocorrosion (wear accelerated by corrosion) and multi-degradation (tribocorrosion accelerated by fatigue) in a field highly affected by these degradation mechanisms. This is a brand-new material selection methodology for the renewable energy sector compared to the current incomplete conventional material selection and validation process (DNV Guidelines1). This project will allow the offshore renewable energy sector to reach their milestones in a more resilient and realistic way, giving it an edge against its current fossil fuel competitors like the Oil and Gas (O&G) sector. MORE’s methodology incorporates the functionality of small-scale testing, up to scaled-up devices. This approach is expected to contribute significantly to directly solving the ORE sector's challenges, making a step change improvement in the reliability, performance, lifetime predictability and longevity of their equipment.