New research, investigating single-sided welding for offshore wind foundations, could cut the cost of wind turbine fabrication. The Fatigue Assessment of Single-Sided Welds in Tubular Joints for Offshore Wind Foundations (ASSISI) project is led by the Belgian Research Centre for Application of Steel (OCAS) and delivered in collaboration with their research partner Iemants (Smulders) as part of the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) programme.
The research project will look at the viability of single-sided welds in tubular joints for offshore structures and run until 2025. The three-year project will conduct 15 fatigue tests across different types of large-scale structures, in addition to a number of small-scale fatigue tests to determine detectable flaw size. This will include numerical simulations and physical testing to replicate the impact on the weld over a structure’s 25-year lifespan.
If the fabrication method is found to be effective for offshore wind structures, it could replace the preferred double-sided welding method used across the industry. It could also cut fabrication and manufacturing times for future windfarm sites.
The OWA ASSISI project is funded by a partnership between EDF Renouvelables, Parkwind, Scottish Power Renewables, Shell, SSE Renewables, TotalEnergies and Vattenfall, and is being delivered by OCAS in collaboration with foundation manufacturer Iemants (Smulders). The project also received funding from the NextGenerationEU programme, made available through the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Enterprise (VLAIO).
