Seals improve service life of offshore wind turbines

27 October, 2022

Designed for long life

There has been a sharp increase in the expected service life of components used for sea-based wind turbines in recent years. While 25 years were initially considered a good lifespan, this standard has now risen to up to 35 years. Such a long operating life can’t be ensured by means of bench tests. This is why Freudenberg is using an adapted Arrhenius algorithm to extrapolate the results of six-week intensive stress tests. This quite familiar procedure, named after the Swedish chemist and Nobel laureate Svante August Arrhenius, has been consistently refined by Freudenberg experts in recent years. They significantly improved the service life model by coupling chemical and physical effects with the structural mechanical behavior of the material.

“80% of all currently projected marine wind farms are based on monopile technology,” estimates Marcel Schreiner, who oversees sales in the energy sector at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies. “This is an important growing market for us.”

In Schreiner’s view, the trend towards ever larger systems – nominal capacities of 20 megawatts are under discussion for 2030 – also speaks in favour of paying particular attention to the service life when selecting components.

www.freudenberg.com

https://twitter.com/freudenberg

https://www.linkedin.com/company/freudenberg-group/