To increase efficiency and lower production costs, the offshore wind industry is focusing on the development of larger wind generators. The HELIX project provided high-strength steel fasteners for the offshore wind industry at a lower cost, more resistant to corrosion and with a wider diameter to support the ever-increasing size of wind turbines, leading to higher productivity and supporting the development of larger foundations to support above 10MW OWT and allowed an easy assembly and disassembly of the whole structure.
During the project, novel high-strength steel grades and protecting zinc-flake based coatings were developed and validated. In addition, HELIX used advanced characterisation and traditional techniques under both atmospheric and immersion conditions to advance in the knowledge of hydrogen absorption in high-strength steels under cathodic protection and in atmospheric conditions.
HELIX innovation contributed to advancing the state of the art in coating development and in high-strength steels with high toughness and resistance to hydrogen embrittlement. Project results contributed with a better understanding of the interaction between steel, coating, and service environment in the hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon.
1
To optimise new lower cost high strength steel composition with improved hardenability, high toughness and high hydrogen embrittlement resistance to produce 10.9 and 12.9 steel grades after Quenching and Tempering (Q&T) treatments
2
To identify the mechanisms of hydrogen absorption / desorption of the optimised steels
3
To develop coatings based on zinc flakes and different topcoat materials to protect the steel and to reduce hydrogen entry in service
4
To study the interaction of the optimised steels, the novel coatings and the environment on
the hydrogen absorption quantity and mechanisms
5
To demonstrate the higher performance of the developed fasteners in real service
environments
HELIX interdisciplinary team was made up of 6 partners from 5 European countries covering all the value chain, from steel, bolt and fastener manufacturer companies, research centres to universities.
Presenting HELIX results at the AKI 2024 conference Kateřina Žambochová, Head of Testing Laboratory at Technopark Kralupy of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, participated in the 27th…
The French Corrosion Institute disseminates HELIX at EUROCORR 2024 Geoffrey Ringot, HELIX partner and engineer from the French Corrosion Institute, took part in the European Corrosion Congress (EUROCORR 2024), held…
Presenting HELIX research during the ARCOR Days 2024 Flavien Vucko, Global Research Leader from the French Corrosion Institute, attended the ARCOR Days 2024, an event organised by the Association for…
The HELIX consortium gathers in Germany for its second year meeting Partners from the HELIX project have met physically on the occasion of the second year meeting, marking the equator…
