Offshore wind turbine foundations are engineered with a variety of designs. The four most common designs are monopiles, jacket, tripod and gravity foundations but the majority of US offshore wind resources are in deep waters and utilize spar-buoy, semi-submersible, and tension leg platform designs. The foundation used and the suitable size depends on external factors such as water depth, wind speed, height of waves and the seabed properties.
All offshore wind turbine resources are at risk from high flow rates and seabed movement. Commonly applied cathodic protection designs can experience issues with these conditions. The corrosion protection design has to consider several issues, including the weight and manageability of anodes for offshore installation, options for mounting the anodes, resistivity of the different layers (as e.g. seawater, mud, clay), coating degradation, flow speed, the build-up of calcareous layers, simultaneous erosion/dissolution due to water currents and their sand load, and hydrogen evolution in a sealed environment.
Remote monitoring is an integral part of ensuring this very complex CP system is functioning correctly to effectively keep corrosion at bay, especially as some offshore wind farms are hundreds of kilometers from shore, encompass in some cases hundreds of square kilometers, and consist of hundreds of turbines. In-field inspection of these difficult to reach offshore structures is infrequent, costly and often cannot provide a complete picture of the condition and performance of the entire cathodic protection system.
The investments made in the construction of offshore wind farms (small near shore facilities in shallow water can average $5MM) and their projected operational life (20-25 years) easily justifies the adoption of remote monitoring platforms for cathodic protection and asset integrity.
The Solution: Effective Cathodic Protection
and Asset Integrity Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring of corrosion and integrity sensors leverages the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in any location to deliver a platform with near real-time collection, analysis, and collaboration tools. MOBILTEX remote monitoring platform solutions enable our clients to easily and effectively realize higher safety and operational efficiencies, transformational digital capabilities, and increased infrastructure integrity.
This is effectively achieved through:
- Being able to quickly identify and assess aversive operational conditions and/or corrosion damage occurring – before it becomes widespread and disruptive.
- Ensuring remote cathodic protection systems are always operating in the optimal range for asset protection, and integrity sensors are accurately capturing valuable data, in even the most challenging locations or environments
- Streamlining data gathering, inspection and reporting for regulatory compliance – and delivering advanced analysis for trending and identifying issues before they occur
- Eliminating the extremely high-cost and safety risks associated with in-field inspection, particularly in remote or difficult to access locations
Learn more about our solutions
Test Station Solutions
Rectifier Solutions
