Comparison of Epoxy Coating Degradations Under Impingement Flow and Stationary Immersion

Offshore wind turbines are considered as a reliable source of electricity generation. However, due to the large cost of the construction and installation of offshore wind turbines, most wind turbines are designed to operate for more than 20 years. One of the biggest issues which causes a severe damage to the construction of wind turbines is the existence of a very corrosive environment including large mechanical loads applied to the construction by the waves and the high concentration of salt and other chemicals in the sea water. The construction of offshore wind turbine can be divided into four main regions based on the types of exposure to the water and the corrosive environment, including submerged zone, tidal zone, splash zone, and atmospheric zone. In this study, experiments were conducted to compare the impact of impingement flow of 3.5 w.t.% NaCl solution on the epoxy coating samples to the exposure of the same type of samples to a stationary 3.5 w.t.% NaCl solution. Those two exposure conditions correspond to the environments at the top and the bottom part of the submerged zone of offshore wind turbines respectively. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) method was used to monitor the degradation of organic coatings. The surface roughness was measured by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The roughness of the coated surfaces before and after the exposure was compared. For the two different flow conditions, i.e. impingement flow and stationary immersion, significant differences have been discovered from the EIS results and AFM results. We observed a more severe degradation in the epoxy coatings in impingement flow, and a rougher surface is formed for coating samples subjected to impingement flow.