Monopile production for offshore wind farms with customized new steels

Steel specialist Dillinger has developed new steel types together with materials scientists from Saarland University, mechanical engineers from RWTH Aachen University, and other partners in the “High-Performance Steel Plate (HL Steel Plate)” research project. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and recently concluded successfully after almost four years.

These new products are particularly suited for monopiles – the steel towers for offshore wind turbines – and their properties enable them to withstand storms, waves and aggressive saltwater for many years, yet they can still be produced economically. These new steels are suitable for high-energy submerged arc welding and electron beam welding, which significantly shortens production times for processors.

“These high-performance welding processes are increasingly being used in large-scale industrial production for welding-intensive steel applications. Particularly in the case of monopiles, joints stretching for kilometers are required due to the huge size of the structures with large sheet thicknesses. Such a process requires materials that can withstand the enormous temperature influences during the joining process. Our special materials are suitable for industrial mass production and represent a milestone in the fabrication of heavy plates for the monopile foundation structures of offshore wind turbines,” explained project manager Dr. Sebastian Scholl from the Research and Development department at Dillinger.

Sebastian Scholl sees other potential applications for the steels beyond the offshore wind sector, including in offshore constructions in Arctic regions and as steel materials for pipeline construction for hydrogen and CO₂ transport.

The associated project partners and processors (SIF Group, EEW Special Pipe Constructions, Steelwind Nordenham, Meyer Werft, Lincoln Electric) carried out their own high-performance welding processes on the new steel materials under realistic conditions and were able to observe the excellent results for themselves.

“The advantages of the new steel types are obvious: improved properties and cost savings thanks to shorter production times for the processing customer. As a company, we can also use these products to help accelerate the expansion of renewable energies and secure the viability of production sites in Germany,” said Dr. Peter Maagh, member of the board of management for Technology at Dillinger, summarizing the research results.