Marine Composites for Ocean Energy applications: Ensuring long-term durability

Abstract: In order to guarantee the long term durability of composites used for ocean energy structures four conditions must be satisfied.

• First, the reinforcements (fibres and sizings) must be chosen correctly.
• Second, an appropriate matrix resin must be selected.
• Third, the manufacturing process and quality must be suited to the application.
• Finally, the structure must be designed to resist the loading conditions with an appropriate safety coefficient.

These conditions are clearly interdependent, but the designer can use a large available database to help in developing a reliable composite structure. This paper gives an overview of available experience and recent results and uses tidal turbine blades as an example to illustrate the importance of material selection.